Passione Villa
by phoenixreal
Summary: Alt Universe (No Powers, Modern) Giorno hides the truth of his home life from others. Things change when he starts school at a new private college and he meets some people who begin to show him that he can lead a different life. (Yaoi, Mista/Giorno)
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is a yaoi fnafiction. This is meant to be read by individuals over 18 years of age. Please enjoy.

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Chapter One

New Outlooks

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Giorno Giovanna stood outside the main building of the new private college named Vento Aureo. He swallowed down the anxiety that was threatening to bubble up his throat. He was early, very early, but he'd scheduled to meet with his advisor before his class. He hadn't been able to meet with him before the semester began and he had to stay in contact with him because of his scholarship. He saw other people walking into the big building and he followed someone inside. He was overcome by how well designed the building was and how open it was. He easily found the elevator and punched in to go to the third floor. He was a bit nervous, but then, he was always nervous.

He was relieved the building was easy to navigate and had plenty of signs directing the way. He found Professor Kujo's office. He pulled open the door to find the large office occupied by a large man with a white suit on. He turned toward him as soon as he opened the door.

"Mr. Giovanna," he said and nodded to him.

Giorno swallowed convulsively. "D-Dr. Kujo, nice to meet you," he said and extended his hand to shake with him.

He reached forward and shook Giorno's hand in a tight, firm grip. Giorno tried to smile but found he couldn't. His stomach was in knots so far today. This man was imposing.

"Have a seat, we'll talk a little about your academic career. I was disappointed that you didn't come during the advisement period," Dr. Kujo said with a narrowed glance at him. He indicated a chair next to his desk. He sat down in his own chair and waited for Giorno to sit down as well. He sat down slowly.

"I know, sir, I wasn't able to get here because I didn't have my bus pass yet," Giorno explained with a look at the floor.

The professor looked at him for a long time before he spoke again. "At least you were able to come early today."

Giorno nodded toward him. "I took basic classes for this semester, according to the catalogue that I have to have for graduation. I have your first level biology class today." He kept his eyes on the floor as he spoke. His nerves were a jangle from the natural presence this man exuded. He naturally wanted to keep his eyes off him.

"That's good, but from now on, we plan your classes together," he told him. "But do you have any questions about the school or classes?"

"No, not really. Just glad to be here and have the opportunity to go to school." Giorno was ready to be out of the office by now. He had an hour before class started still and he wanted to explore the campus a bit.

The professor nodded. "Alright. See you in class later, then."

Giorno left the office and breathed a sigh of relief. He then headed toward the stairs, so he could go down and look around the campus. He found his way to the area between all the buildings where a little seating area around the trees had been set up. He saw the four large buildings that surrounded the area and smiled. It was such a lovely campus. Four main buildings were all there was to it, but then it was a relatively small school compared to the big state school. The school was situated nearer to Chesterfield than St. Louis and had a large percentage of pre-med students in it. There was a transfer program set up with Washington University Medical School that made the transition from the small private school to the large university easy. The sciences were the largest portion of the classes offered at Vento Aureo.

For his first semester, Giorno had taken the basics. Biology, English, Psychology, and Finite Mathematics. All four were necessary for graduation, so he figured that was the best place to start. He was really interested in biology, so that was his declared major. He was thinking of possibly becoming a doctor if he could manage the coursework. He sighed as he sat down on one of the benches in the open area. Despite the warm weather, he wore a hoodie in bright blue. He never went anywhere without his hoodie. He checked the time and figured he should make his way to the biology classroom. It was in the same building his advisor and teacher had been.

The biology classroom was on the first floor, so it was easy to find. He found a seat in the back because he didn't want to sit too close to the professor. He pulled out his notebook and book, glad that the scholarship paid his books and supplies, or he'd never have gotten them. He huffed a deep breath because he was hot. August in Missouri was miserable for him, but he didn't have much choice but to wear the hoodie. He put his head down to wait as others started trickling into the classroom. He looked up as the tall form of Dr. Kujo came into the room.

He stood up in the front of the room and waited for everyone to get seated. Giorno noticed the class was full. He glanced beside him to see a guy that looked a bit older than most the fresh out of high school teenagers like him. He had chin-length straight black hair and blue eyes. Giorno noticed he was wearing a white t-shirt and a pair of jeans. He kept looking over at him. He swallowed and hoped he hadn't attracted attention already.

"Alright, welcome to Bio 101. I'm Dr. Jotaro Kujo. Today, I'm going to pass out the syllabus and we're going to talk about what's on it and what's expected of you to get a good grade in here. Then I'm going to pair you off and you'll find out three things about your partner." There was a general groan in the room. "None of that, now, please pass these out, you," he said pointing to a guy in the front.

The syllabus came back to him and he looked it over. Seemed pretty standard set up for the class. Dr. Kujo went on to read most of it out loud to the class and ask if anyone had questions. No one did. Next came the pair up. Giorno hated these things, because he always got someone that was nosier than he'd like. The professor paired people up based on where they were sitting with the person next to them. That meant he was paired with the black-haired student beside him. Everyone turned their desks to face their partner.

"Get three facts about your partner. I'll take up the papers when you've finished and that will serve as your grade for today," the professor told them. There was another grumble as people shuffled out pieces of paper and pens.

Giorno pulled out his notebook and wrote his name at the top before looking over at the other student.

"Hi," the other student started, giving him a smile. "I'm Bruno Buccellati."

"Um, I'm Giorno Giovanna," he said and wrote down the name on his paper. He wondered if names counted as one of the three items…

"Well, you need three things about me. So, let's see. I'm twenty-three years old. Um, I'm attending college because my father wanted me to get an education, and… I like grilled scallops," Bruno said with a nod. "Now you?"

Giorno swallowed and finished writing down what he'd said. "Um, well, I'm eighteen, I like Jeff Beck's music, and I like chocolate," he muttered, staring mostly at his hands. He looked up to see Bruno giving him an odd look. "I'm not too complicated."

"What are you studying?" Bruno asked with a tilt of his head.

"Right now, Biology is my major, but I might do the medical program," Giorno said with a vague smile on his face. "Um, what about you?" He thought this guy seemed to be nice by his face.

"I'm in biology too, but I have my eye on something to do with aquaculture," Bruno explained.

"Alright class, that's the end of class for today, pass up your papers," the professor said and walked across the front of the room.

Giorno got up and scurried out of the room with the onrush of people. He really didn't want to talk further. He had two hours before his psychology class, so he went back out in the middle area with the trees and shrubs. He felt at ease there with the plants. He wished he could have a garden at home, but he knew that would never happen. He spent the two hours watching people walk between the buildings and walk the paths. When it was time for his psychology class, he got up and went to the building across from the science building. This time the class was on the second floor. He found his way to the classroom and sat as far to the back as he could. He was tired as he put his head down on his desk. He had actually almost dozed off when someone shook his shoulder.

"Hey, can you switch me seats?"

Giorno looked up to see a boy not much older than him with a blue shirt on and a pair of jeans. He had a blue hat on his head and dark eyes. He looked nervous. The class had filled up and the only open seat was in front of Giorno.

"What's wrong with that seat?" Giorno asked, frowning.

"It's the fourth seat. I can't sit there. The number four is bad for me," he said and gave him a wan smile. "So, can you trade me?"

Giorno didn't know what to make of this guy. He stared at his face for a minute, trying to determine what sort of person he was, but he didn't have much time before he got up and moved to the seat in front of him. The other boy sat down behind him and clapped him on the back, causing Giorno to hiss and jerk forward. His shoulder was still sore. He smiled at the other boy though, trying to look like nothing was wrong. He was giving him that look though. That look that said he knew something was wrong.

He sat through the psychology class, reading over the syllabus, going over the text for the class, and discussing how the class worked. It turned out the class was mostly graded based on papers, which Giorno liked to do a lot. That meant time in the library and he loved to spend time in the library almost as much as he liked being outside. That was good since he had a lot of time when he could stay at the school rather than going home.

He sighed and checked the time. To make the bus, he had to leave now. He wished he could stay longer but the bus didn't run late. He sighed and made his way to the bus stop. He waited for a few minutes, finding the bus was running late. He couldn't count on the bus being late though. He had to be here early because he absolutely wasn't going to call his step father to come pick him up. That would be bad.

The bus came, and he got on. As he rode the bus, he thought about the people he'd met so far. He shouldn't get too attached, though. He never kept friends for long. He sighed again as he came to the bus stop near his home. He got off and walked slowly toward the very normal looking suburban house. Everything looked so nice, nothing out of place. In fact, from the outside, their life looked perfect. Inside, though, that was a different story.

He carefully opened the door to try and get in without his step father hearing him. He really didn't want a confrontation tonight because he'd had a good day so far. He stepped inside and listened carefully. His mother was probably passed out on the sofa with a half-gone bottle of wine. In her younger days, she would have been out partying up, but now all she did was stay home and drink wine and take her "special pills" that her friend got for her. He supposed being ignored by her wasn't too bad. Now if his step-father would do the same, he'd be alright.

He was nearly to the stairs when he heard him. His step father was a big Italian man who was almost as imposing as his advisor and professor, but not quite. He was coming down the stairs and there was nowhere for Giorno to go, so he waited. He made sure not to look at him, keeping his eyes down. He hoped he just walked by. He stopped and stood there for a second.

"So, you think you're something now that you got into that fancy school, huh?" he asked.

"No, sir," he said and shook his head, still not looking at him. If he looked at him, he'd get mad at him and really do something. His shoulder was still bruised and sore from the last time he got mad at him for "trying to read" him, as he put it.

"Uh huh," he muttered and walked into the other room.

Giorno didn't breathe as he walked up the stairs as quiet as he could. He knew better than to bother him with any noise. He sat down on his small bed and put his bag down beside him. He let out a deep breath and started reading the first chapter in his psychology text book. He would go down after it got to be nighttime to find something to eat in the kitchen. He hadn't eaten yet today, he realized.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Bruno Buccellati waited at his car for his two roomies to get out of their respective places. Guido Mista was the first to show up, slowly walking toward the car. He threw his bag in the back and leaned against the car with Bruno. Bruno was looking thoughtful.

"What's up?" Mista said from beside him.

"Just another student in my biology class. Something was off about him," he muttered.

Just as he was about to continue, their third came walking out to the car with his bag. He waved to them. "Hey, how was your first day?" Pannacotta Fugo called out as he got close.

"Good," Bruno said with a smile. "Ready to go home."

Fugo nodded and got into the passenger side to let Bruno drive. Mista piled into the back with the bags. They headed to their home in silence because they knew that once they were home, their other roommate, Narancia Ghirga, would want to know everything about their day. Bruno pulled into the long driveway that led to the main house of their home, Passione Villa.

Passione Villa was the name given to a house surrounded by some smaller houses. Fugo had received the land in an out of court settlement with his family. It had been vacant for years, and there had been squatters here and there over that time. Since moving into the place, Fugo and his roommates had been working on improving and remodeling the place. All around the house, there were half finished projects and spots where no one had touched it yet. Old, yellowing wallpaper clung to some of the walls showing its age and just how long it had been since it had been installed. Obnoxious roles and flowers mixed in different patterns clashing between the different walls.

As everyone came into the house, Narancia came into the front room.

"Well, how was the first day?" he asked excitedly.

Bruno smiled and flopped into the sofa (one of the few newer items in the house). "Ah, good, I realized how long it has been since I've been in school, seeing all those young kids."

Mista snorted. "Hey, I'm one of those young kids. You act like you're old at ripe old age of twenty-three. You ain't that much older than me."

"It was interesting to meet the other research assistants. I think I'm going to like working at this school," Fugo commented as he flopped into the sofa.

Bruno was thinking about one person in particular, and he couldn't get him out of his mind. He was lost in thought when Mista punched him lightly in the shoulder. "I said, did you meet anyone?"

"Ah, yeah, couple of other students," he said with a small smile.

"You've got that look," Fugo said from beside him.

"What look?" Bruno asked with a frown.

"That 'something is bothering me' look," Mista answered, sitting down in the chair next to the sofa. "You get it every time something is eating at you."

He sighed. "It's just that this one student in my biology class, I think something's going on with him. As hot as it was today, he was wearing a hoodie and jeans. And he was quiet."

"I think I know that guy. He's in my psych class. He sits in front of me. I had him trade me the fourth seat in the row," Mista said. "I didn't think about it then, but he was wearing a hoodie. He must have been hot…"

Bruno nodded. "Yeah, we did that pair up and find out facts about your partner thing in bio and he seemed to be wanting to get done as fast as he could."

They were all quiet for a moment, then Narancia spoke up. "So what are you gonna do about him?"

Bruno turned to him. "What do you mean?"

"Well, obviously it's bothering you. So that means that you wanna do something about it. That means you gotta decide what you're gonna do." Narancia smiled at them.

"Well, I guess first we should try to talk to him and maybe see if he'll go out to get a coffee or something?" Mista mused and looked at the others.

"I don't know that he would go out with someone," Bruno muttered, thinking about the quiet blond. "He said his name was Giorno. Seemed like a nice enough kid."

"Giorno," Mista said. "Sounds Italian, does he look it?"

"Not really," Bruno said and shook his head. "But that's hard to tell, really."

They sat silently for a few minutes and thought on the subject. "What if something is going on? He seemed jumpy," Mista asked as he looked at Bruno.

Bruno shook his head. "I don't know. We help him if we can."

"Well, you know you can bring him here if you need to. We have the bedrooms here and the out buildings," Fugo said as he stood up. "I'm going to the kitchen and finding something to eat."

Bruno nodded but was still thoughtful. He wasn't sure what he thought was happening to the blond boy, but he knew it was something. He could just sense it and he wanted to help fix it. Whatever it took.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Giorno got through Tuesday without incident at the school. Unfortunately, when he got home, he hadn't been so lucky. He walked right into a fight between his mother and step-father, and he ended up getting hit in the process. Now, Wednesday morning, he stood in the bathroom trying to cover the bruising around his eye with a tube of cheap concealer he'd bought. If anyone looked closely, they'd see the bruise and the redness, but from a distance it covered it. It was sore, and he really didn't want to mess with it. He sighed as he did as much as he could. Right now, he really wished this school had dorms.

He grabbed his bag and walked quietly down the stairs. Luckily, his step-father left for work earlier than he left, so he didn't have to worry about running into him. He made his way to the bus stop and leaned against the sign. He was so tired that he nearly missed the bus pulling into the stop. He jerked and got onto the bus and watched for his stop. He didn't want to miss it and have to walk even further. He got off and made it up to the campus with an hour left before his class started. He smiled to himself and went to the little park like area between the buildings.

It had turned really hot today, and he was really wishing his shoulder and arm weren't still bruised. He wasn't about to answer questions about what happened to it. What was he supposed to say? That he was eighteen and still putting up with an abusive step-father? It wasn't like he had anywhere to go. He was only going to school because he'd gotten lucky, and he was doing his best to use the money from his scholarship wisely, but he knew it wouldn't last all semester. He had no idea what he'd do when that ran out.

He sighed as he got up to go to biology again. He was really interested in the class, so he was happy he got to go three times a week. He liked all his other classes too and being able to get out of the house all week was well worth the work he had to put into the courses. He sat in the same seat as he had on Monday and found most the class did the same. He glanced over and saw that the one named Bruno had sat down beside him again. He hoped he didn't try and talk to him today, he really wasn't in the mood.

The class went well, luckily with no more pairing up moments. He took notes and listened to Dr. Kujo. He liked the man, even if he was imposing. He was so tired though; he hadn't slept until late last night and he wanted to sleep in. He couldn't take the chance, though. He had to be on time for all his classes no matter what. Going to school was the only way he had to get out of the household he lived in. He was about to get up and escape the room after they were dismissed when the black-haired guy beside him grabbed him by the arm. He jerked and looked at him.

"Hey," Bruno said with a soft smile. "You look tired today?"

"Ah, yeah, just didn't sleep well," he told him, trying not to look him straight in the face. He knew his concealment of his bruise wasn't that great. It wasn't like he was an expert in makeup.

"That a fact," Bruno continued to hold onto his arm and stop him from leaving.

"I really should go," Giorno started and looked up at him and knew he suspected something already. He had the look. He wanted to bolt and hide, as usual when he was found out.

"Look, what's going on? I can tell something is. You don't look well, and you have a very badly covered black eye you didn't have on Monday. Let me help you," Bruno said with a sad look on his face.

Giorno swallowed thickly and shook his head. "It doesn't concern you."

"But I want to help you, maybe I can just be someone you can talk to?" Bruno still had a hold on his arm and he wanted to escape but he was trapped.

"I-I don't w-want to talk about it," he mumbled and turned away from Bruno to look up at the front where Dr. Kujo was watching them.

"Giorno, right?" Bruno asked and let go of his arm and smiled again.

"Yeah," he said and looked up at him. If it wasn't for the fact he believed what he said, he might have walked away. But there was something about him that said that he was being honest with him. His concern seemed genuine and he was so tired of hiding from everyone.

"Come on, let's go somewhere and talk," he said and put a hand on his back.

Giorno tried to say no, he really did, but he couldn't. He wanted someone to talk to. He wanted someone to listen to him. He wanted so much to be like everyone else around him. Maybe he could help him? Maybe he couldn't. He wouldn't know unless he took the chance with someone who was reaching for him.

Bruno steered Giorno to the area between the buildings and sat down on one of the benches beside him. "Now, who is it?"

Swallowing thickly, Giorno looked at him for a moment and decided he could trust him. "M-my step-father," he finally said in a near whisper.

"How long?" Bruno asked and Giorno didn't catch any accusation in his tone.

"I don't know. Since I was four when my mother got married to him," he said as he licked his lips.

Bruno was quiet for a moment. "What do you want to do?"

"I-I want it to stop, but it won't stop. I'm just a burden to him and my mother. He thinks that I'm going to school to make him look bad. And my mother just doesn't care. I think I could disappear and she'd never notice," Giorno stared at his hands as he spoke. He didn't really know why he was telling this stranger about his life, but it felt comfortable.

"Do you want to leave?" Bruno asked him finally after a few minutes of silence.

Giorno looked up at him and shrugged. "I don't have anywhere to go. I'm here on a scholarship, and it isn't enough to pay for an apartment, especially not here. I don't know what else I could do. I'm stuck in that place."

Bruno looked thoughtful and then reached out and took his hand. "You could come with me."

"What?" he asked and looked at him suddenly. What was this strange man asking him now?"

"I live in a place with lots of room and some good people. We call it Passione Villa, I know a funny name, right? But we're all people without a place to go, so we came together," he told him with a gentle smile.

Giorno looked at him and shook his head. "How could I…I mean, I couldn't just leave!"

"Why not? You said yourself they saw you as a burden and your mother couldn't care less what happened to you. So, just leave it. Leave them." Bruno looked sincere to Giorno's eyes and he wondered if this was the chance to actually leave and be happy.

"H-how could I do that? I just met you," he stammered, not sure if he was being weird or not. To go off with some stranger and live with them.

"Why don't you come home with me today. I drive, so you can get to school easily enough with us. I think it might be what you need," Bruno said with such sincerity that Giorno almost said yes on the spot.

"I don't know. I mean, how can I just leave everything I know?"

"What you know isn't good for you. You can be free of them, if you want. I know I'm going quickly, but you know you won't be able to keep up with school if this continues. You already look like you're about to fall asleep in class. How long before you actually start sleeping in class and missing the lectures?" Bruno squeezed his hand and sighed. "You need to think about yourself and your future."

"How about… about I think about it," Giorno said with a nod. "I have to think about it."

"Okay, then after your last class, meet me here. I get done in about four hours. Do you think you can do that?" Bruno asked.

"S-sure," Giorno said and nodded. "I'll meet you here in four hours."

He had to decide if he was going to go with this stranger. But then what did he have to lose? It wasn't like he was safe at home. He wasn't exactly going to excel at his classes if this kept up at the same rate it was going so far. He was confused but he wasn't going to go anywhere else. He watched as Bruno got up and left him sitting on the bench. He sighed and hoped that the rest of the day went well, but he couldn't be sure of what would happen.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Another View

Mista got the message from Bruno telling him that he'd already talked to the kid named Giorno. He told him that he was planning on meeting with him after he was done. Mista thought it was strange to already be meeting with him after class. Something must have made him want to move faster.

He got to class early and saw that he was already there, sitting in the fourth seat again. He smiled because he remembered that Mista didn't want to sit there. Well, couldn't sit there. There was no way he could ever sit in the fourth seat. He would have stood in the back before he ever sat there. He walked over and sat down behind him. He leaned forward and patted his back.

He turned around and Mista realized why Bruno had invited him to meet already. He had a barely covered black eye. How bad could his home be for him to already show up with such an obvious injury? He smiled at him, though.

"Hey, Bruno said he talked to you," Mista said.

"You know him?" Giorno asked with a confused look on his face.

"Yeah, I live with him. He said you were going to meet him after class today. I thought I could walk with you, if you're going, of course." Mista felt somewhat awkward since he didn't know very much about him yet.

"Um, yeah, I guess so," Giorno said and gave him a strained smile. He turned back around as the class filled in.

Mista still wondered on his situation. Obviously, someone had decked him good to leave that kind of mark on him. He wondered if that was why he wore the hoodie all the time, too. He also looked too thin in the face, but with the hoodie on, it was impossible to tell if he was thinner than he should be. He had pretty, longish blond hair pulled back in a short braid. Mista halfway wanted to reach out and tug on it. He smirked to himself. That wouldn't be the best way to start out things with someone. Unless, of course, they like that sort of thing. He wondered for a moment about that as the class went on.

As class came to an end, Mista realized he had totally missed everything in the lecture. Oh well, he thought to himself. He'd get Giorno to give him the notes. He got up and patted him on the shoulder.

"Where you going to wait?" he asked.

Giorno still tried to avoid making eye contact, he noticed. He shrugged and muttered, "I guess that nice area between the buildings."

"Alright, let's go there to wait," Mista told him and put a hand on his back to steer him toward the door.

They were quiet as they went out to the park-like area between the buildings. Mista steered Giorno away from the last seat since it was the fourth in the row. He sat down beside him in the third seat.

"You really don't like the number four, do you?" Giorno asked with a half grin on his face.

"Four is super unlucky. The doctor told my mom that it's called tetraphobia. Fear of the number four. I guess that's what it is, but I just know it is an unlucky number for me. Any other number is okay, even if it has four in it, but I won't be the fourth in line or the fourth person to do something, or take something that there are four of. I know, kinda weird, right?" Mist smirked as he spoke. "Used to get teased about it when I was in school."

"I was teased a lot in school too," Giorno said with a sad smile. "They didn't understand me."

"Sometimes it takes certain people to understand you," Mista said and put a hand on Giorno's knee for a second.

They were quiet for a while until Giorno spoke up again. "I don't know what I'm doing here. I can't just go with strangers… can I?" he asked turning toward Mista.

"You can do what you want," Mista told him with a soft smile. "Look, you make the call here. Go or not, we'll take you to meet everyone at the house and you can see what you think. If you want, we'll take you home, but I don't think that's exactly what you want. You wouldn't be thinking about it so much if it wasn't something you wanted to do."

"It just seems so sudden for me to meet people and go to their house…" Giorno said while he continued to stare at his hands.

"Well, Bruno is a good person, that's all I know. And the guy we live with, Fugo, is too," Mista said. "I mean, they took me in."

"How did you meet Bruno?" Giorno asked, looking over at him.

"Well, just like you, it happened by chance. I was homeless at the time. I'd been on the street for a while, so I got along pretty well. But I saw some bad stuff go down, almost got into some bad stuff by accident, so I decided to get off the street." Mista sighed and shook his head. "I was looking for work and I happened to find one for a handyman. It was for Bruno's mother. So, that's how we met, and we became friends. Then Bruno went to school, and I decided to try and go to school too. I'm going on loans, so I'll be paying them back forever."

Giorno nodded. "In class you said your name was Guido?"

"Yeah, but everyone calls me Mista," he said with a smile. "Just one of those things that kinda stuck."

"Looks like you two found each other," Bruno said from behind them. Both turned to look at him.

"I guess…I guess I'm going to come with you, if you're sure it's okay?" Giorno asked as he stood up.

"Of course," Bruno said and put an arm around Giorno's shoulders, gently. "Come on, you'll meet Fugo at the car."

"Fugo owns the place we're going?" Giorno asked as they walked to the parking lot.

"Yeah, he's a good guy. He works here at the school as a research assistant," Mista said from behind them.

They got to the car and waited a few minutes quietly for Fugo to get there. He got there and smiled to Giorno. "I see we have an extra?"

"Fugo, this is Giorno," Mista said from beside him. "We're going to bring him home for today at least."

"My place is turning into a hodgepodge," Fugo said with a smirk as he slid into the passenger seat.

"W-well, I m-might go back home," Giorno said as he got into the back seat nervously clutching his bag.

Mista got in and noticed how closed off Giorno was. He had to be used to being on guard for something to happen all the time. He was almost shaking with anxiety. Mista put a hand on his shoulder. "You don't have to worry about everyone there. We've only got one more roommate, Narancia. Though he might be in a mood today," he muttered the last, wondering how Narancia would be dressed today.

As they came up to the property, Giorno leaned over and stared out the window. "Wow," he breathed. "This is so nice. All these trees are beautiful."

Mista supposed there were a lot of trees, though he hadn't ever took a lot of notice of those sort of things. He looked around and realized that Giorno was right, there were a lot of beautiful trees around. He glanced back at Giorno and saw that his face was bright, mouth slightly open as he looked around at the natural surroundings. He thought to himself that he must really like nature or something.

They parked the car and got out near the main house. He got out and watched as Giorno did the same, still looking around at the surroundings. Mista had to admit, he never really paid much attention to the things that surrounded them. He walked around the car and grabbed Giorno gently by the arm to steer him toward the house.

Bruno looked behind him at Giorno. "Oh, I should tell you, Narancia has interesting taste in clothes…"

Mista wasn't surprised when they came into the front door to find Narancia dressed in a halter dress with stripes in shades of orange, blue, and mint. Giorno stopped and stared for a second but he didn't say anything.

"You brought someone home!" Narancia said from the kitchen and came into the living room.

"Narancia, this is Giorno. I told you about him the other night," Bruno said with a gentle smile as he put his hand on Giorno's back.

"Hi there!" Narancia said with a grin.

Bruno steered Giorno into the dining room where everyone sat down. "You can take off your hoodie, Giorno," Bruno said, patting him gently. "You have to be sweltering in this heat with that thing on."

Giorno looked a bit anxious at the thought of taking off his hoodie though. "I'm fine, really, I'm used to it."

"Well, no one is going to make you take it off, but you can if you want," Bruno told him as he went into the kitchen.

Mista wondered what it was with the hoodie that made him not want to take it off. They already knew about his home life, so it wasn't like he was hiding anything like that from them. Still, if he didn't want to take it off, they weren't going to make him do it. He just wished he would. It would be a sign that he was more relaxed around them.

Bruno came back with tea and Mista got up to help hand out the cups. They were mismatched and different sizes, but they were their cups. Bruno poured tea for everyone and then passed around the bowl of sugar. Fugo talked a bit about how his day had gone, and everyone chit-chatted but Giorno kept his head down and stared mostly at his cup of tea.

"Giorno?" Fugo said finally. Giorno looked up at him. During the day, the makeup he'd used to cover his eye had been rubbed off for the most part, and it was quite obvious now. Narancia seemed to just now notice it.

"What happened to your eye?" Narancia gasped out suddenly.

Giorno's breath caught and he swallowed nervously. Mista shook his head at Narancia's bluntness. Fugo put a hand on Narancia and smiled. "Don't worry on it, okay?"

Narancia looked like he wanted to say something more but he didn't. Giorno smiled a little and looked up at them. "No, it's okay. I just, I'm not used to people taking an interest in me and what happens to me, you know?"

Bruno leaned over and squeezed his shoulder. "Do you have any questions for us?"

Giorno shrugged and sipped his tea. "I guess, just how you ended up here together would be interesting to hear," he told them.

Fugo nodded. "Well, I had the misfortune to end up in a mental hospital. My family had put me there against my will, with hopes that I'd become more docile. Really, they wanted to control me and what I did. The place was less than above board, and they were doing drug testing without patient consent or knowledge. I met Narancia there."

"Yeah, they tried to say I was 'mentally unstable' after I got arrested for something I didn't do. I was framed for assault and robbery, but I really didn't do it," Narancia added as he sipped his own tea.

"I got released, before Narancia, and I wondered what happened to him after that. I went on to sue my family, and to keep me from taking it to court, they settled with me, giving me this place. It was kind of half to get rid of me, and half to get rid of it. It was in disrepair and no one had been living here in a while. I didn't mind, so I started looking for people to help with fixing it up," Fugo continued and poured himself another cup of tea.

"That's when he found me again!" Narancia said with a grin. "He found me when I was pretty bad off, so it was good that he did."

"Yeah, he was going through withdrawal from the drugs they'd used in that place. I brought him home, and it was so bad that I had to tie his ankle to the bedpost to keep him from running off."

"I saw some horrible things," Narancia said with a shiver. "I remember just wanting to run from them and keep on running… They come back now and then, but never as bad as at first. I also was super sick and wanted to crawl outta my skin. It wasn't any fun."

Giorno was listening to them intently while drinking his tea. "Did they ever do anything about the place you were at?"

"When I sued my family, it brought up some other cases against them and they've since been shut down."

"That's good," Giorno nodded and looked over at Bruno. "How'd you end up here?"

Bruno smiled. "Well, I saw an advertisement for help fixing up a house that Fugo put up. I was living with my mother at the time, and Fugo offered to let me stay if I helped fix the place up."

"And then you invited Mista?" Giorno said with a glance at him.

"Yeah, he was working as a handyman for my mother. He was able to help out too," Bruno said with a smile at him. "Once we get more of it fixed up, Fugo is going to rent out the out houses and rooms."

There was a long silence between them as Giorno sat with his tea, still staring at it.

"What's your story?" Bruno asked with a small smile at him

Mista saw the look cross Giorno's face. He grimaced a little and swallowed. "My mother was a party girl. She got pregnant with me by someone. I still don't know who my real father is. When I was four, she married my step-father. He never liked me. I used to try to tell when he was in a bad mood by looking at him, but then he'd get mad at me for doing that. So eventually I just stopped looking at him."

Bruno nodded, and sighed. "Well, I will share with you my story, then. If you want. We all have a story to tell, you know."

Giorno nodded to him. "Yeah, I'd like to hear it."

Bruno smiled and began speaking. "My father was a gulf coast fisherman. When I was ten, my mother left and moved to Missouri. I stayed with my father, though. He never had any education which is why I'm going to school now, it was his last wish that I get the education he never did. My father saved up enough to send me to school even after he was shot when he accidentally witnessed a drug deal going on. He was permanently disabled after that." Bruno paused and smiled a little. "He died not long ago, complications of his injuries. I moved here to live with my mother where I had a step-father and half brothers and sisters. Luckily, I get along with them, if I got a lot of 'who the hell are you' looks at first. So that's my story and how I got here."

Giorno nodded and Mista spoke up. "I ended up here because I was homeless after my mom died. She was an alcoholic and it eventually killed her. She'd been depressed for a long time, and it only got worse as time went on."

Mista watched him carefully. He wondered what was so bad that he wouldn't take off the hoodie no matter how hot it was getting. It was significant. Something more than just covering up bruises it seemed to him. He wanted to know, and he wanted to help him. He just seemed so closed off. It was like the world went on around Giorno and he watched it from outside.

"I guess I haven't had it as bad as others; I've never been homeless or anything like that," Giorno said still staring at his cup.

"Don't be ridiculous. There's no competition," Bruno said with a wave of his hand. "We've all been through tough things, and what matters is what we do now. So do you want to stay here with us instead of going back to that home?"

Giorno looked at him with a longing in his eyes. "Yeah, I think so. If I can."

Bruno smiled proudly and nodded. "Of course, of course. You'll be here as long as you want, and whenever you want. Only three of the bedrooms are finished upstairs, though, so you'll need to sleep with Mista or me, or you can have the sofa."

Giorno looked at the living room. "Is there a light down here at night?" he asked as he looked around.

"Yeah, that's the only bad part, the light there stays on," Fugo said and pointed to a light that was in the stairwell that could just barely be seen from where they were.

"That's fine, I'll stay on the couch for now," he said with a nod of his head.

Bruno got up and went to a small closet near the living room and pulled out a blanket and took it to the couch. "What of your clothes?" he asked Giorno.

"I'll have to go get some tomorrow during the day, my step-father is home by now," he said with a frown.

"Do you want me to take you tomorrow before you have school? I have classes but not until afternoon," Bruno asked as he came back in the dining room.

"That would be good, then I could get some clothes and a few things from my room. I have a duffel bag I can put stuff in." He paused and shrugged. "I don't have a lot of things, to be honest."

"For now, if you want, I can take you on a tour of the house and the property," Mista offered as Bruno sat back down.

"I think that would be nice," Giorno said with a nod toward him. Mista noticed that he tended to stare at people's faces and knew it must have been a defense mechanism to see what people were like and who was going to hurt him. For some reason, that made Mista sad. Even among them, he was on his defense against someone doing something bad. Now, if they could just get him to take off the hoodie…

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

"I don't have time for nonsense, has he paid or not?" Diavolo asked as he sat with his feet up on the desk. "I don't want his excuses. I want the money we're owed."

"I will get the money out of him," Squalo said as he sat across from the boss. He and his partner Tiziano were in talking to him about some of their clients who had yet to pay up for the month. "He's got a family, after all."

"Yeah, but does he care about them enough to use 'em?" Tiziano asked as he looked between the boss and his partner.

Diavolo shook his head. "I don't care what it takes. He's got one more chance to pay up, then we go after his family. You said he has a kid?"

"Step-kid. But he's gotta have some attachment to the kid, I'd think," Squalo commented, looking at Diavolo.

Diavolo looked thoughtful. "Go see him again and tell him that if he doesn't come up with the money, the next time we come to him, he's going to regret not paying us."

"Got it, boss," Tiziano said and got up. Squalo followed suit and they both left the office, letting in Massimo Volpe. The tall, thin man whisked into the room to sit down where the others had just left. "Boss, the new synthetics are coming along well. I think you'll be pleased. This batch that Cioccolatta and I have been working on should be ready for distribution soon."

"Good, good. The more designer drugs we can manufacture, the better. How are things in production going?" he asked with a glance at the clock on the wall.

"Well, we've got some good workers in this batch, so we haven't lost any like last time. I think they realize who they're working for and are accepting of that fact," Massimo said as he sighed. "They've realized the uselessness of life."

"I suppose, just keep them in line," Diavolo said with a sigh as he looked over the numbers for this week.

"Yes, boss," Massimo said and stood up to leave. He paused at the door as though about to ask something but then seemed to think better of it and left anyway.

Diavolo glared at the red in the ledger for those that still owed him. He took a red pen and circled a name. Giovanna.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Giorno woke up when the sun started streaming in through the windows, but he didn't mind. He sighed, having slept well for the first time in a long time. He knew this morning, no one would be home except his mother and she would probably be asleep at that time. He sat up and looked around the room. Now in the light he could see that one of the walls had peeling wallpaper, but another was down to the basic boards of the wall. On the coffee table, there was an interesting magazine with a scared woman on the cover and what looked like zombies or something floating down a river. He blinked and picked it up. The title was Man's Life and it looked old.

"We found a box of those things when we were clearing out the attic space," he heard and turned to see Bruno come walking into the living room from the dining room. "They're old pulp magazines from the 50s and the 60s. We sold some to a collector, but we kept that one just to have it as a conversation piece."

"Were they writing about zombies back then too?" Giorno asked, flipping through the pages of the magazine.

"No, actually those are preserved copses in the story, so still gruesome." Bruno sat a cup of tea down on the coffee table for Giorno and the sugar bowl.

"I want to thank you for everything," Giorno said as he put some sugar into the tea and stirred it. "I can't believe I just took off with a stranger like this."

"Well, I hope that we're not strangers so much anymore," Bruno said and put a hand on his arm. "Sometimes people do just want to help."

Giorno nodded. "I just don't expect such things from others. I always got bullied in school, too, because I was smaller than a lot of the other kids. I'm just not used to being treated like this."

Bruno patted him on the back. "You'll have to get used to it now. Now, finish your tea, and we'll go pick up some things for you."

Giorno nodded and smiled as he sipped his tea. It was nice to start the day like this. He had slept well, and now he was going to get some things so he could stay here a while. He was glad these people seemed like good ones. He could have just as easily fallen into the wrong crowd, he supposed. He didn't want to think about the what ifs though. He had found a group of nice people.

He jumped when he felt someone sit down beside him. He looked over to see Mista. "Hey," he said with a slight smile. "How'd you sleep?"

"Good, I liked sleeping here. It was peaceful. I didn't have to worry," he said with a small sigh.

"Was it that bad?" Mista asked with a concerned face. "Your home."

"I just had to watch what I did. The best was to be invisible, you know. I'd rather be ignored than noticed by my step-father. He just really never liked me being there. I always wondered why he stayed with my mother, all they did is fight," Giorno said as he finished his tea.

"We should go to my house soon," he said as he took the teacup to the kitchen. He stopped when he entered it and looked behind him at Mista. "Why is there a toilet in the kitchen?"

Mista laughed out loud at the question as Fugo came down the stairs. "Because no one's taken it upstairs yet. It's for one of the baths up there," Fugo explained as he walked into the kitchen. "It'll get there eventually," he said with a smirk.

Bruno put an arm around Giorno and steered him toward the door. "Let's go get your things."

"I'll come with," Mista said as he jumped up from the couch. "I don't have class for a couple hours yet either."

"First, we'll drop Fugo off at the school, then we'll head to your place, okay?" Bruno said as they went outside to his car.

Fugo got in the front passenger side, so Giorno got into the back seat with Mista again. He felt a little strange, like Mista was watching him closely for whatever reason. He seemed to be being very interested in what he was saying when he spoke. He sighed, wondering how this would all go. Fugo and Bruno talked back and forth about what they were doing during the day and Giorno kept quiet. He didn't want to interrupt them in their daily routine like this trip to his house was going to do.

They dropped Fugo off and Bruno asked Giorno to get in the front, so he could give directions. He moved up and directed him to the house. They pulled into the driveway in front of the house.

"Wow, looks so…suburbia," Mista said as he looked around.

Giorno smiled and nodded. "Everything in it's place," he said as he got out. He looked to see Mista had gotten out too.

"In case you need help," he said with a shrug. Giorno nodded, smiling a little. He led him into the house and found, as expected, his mother was passed out on the sofa with a half full bottle off wine still sitting on the coffee table. He sighed and turned off the TV which was still on and went up the stairs. He came into his room and grabbed the duffel bag and started throwing clothes in it. Mista came in behind him.

"You don't have much in here," he commented as he looked around.

"Yeah, not really," Giorno quickly put a few things from his closet into the bag and some stuff from his drawer. He really didn't have much to speak of aside from clothes, and those he didn't have a lot of. He filled the bag up and looked at Mista. "That's it," he said with a glance around. "All of my life in one bag," he said and felt a pang of sadness. It wasn't like this house was a place he enjoyed, and he certainly had never felt loved in it, but it was still hard to let go of what he knew.

"Come on, we've all got class to worry about today," Mista said and put a hand on his shoulder. Giorno nodded and let Mista lead them back out toward the front door. He found himself walking out into the sunshine and feeling something he hadn't felt in a while: hope for the future.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Window Inside

Giorno's first weekend in the Villa would be an interesting one. He woke up to the sound of hammering on Saturday morning. He blinked wearily and sat up on the couch. He was bleary eyed and tired still as he'd had trouble sleeping the night before. He yawned and stretched his arms over his head.

"Sorry for the noise," came Bruno's voice from the kitchen. "Fugo decided this morning to work on the basement stairs. There were a couple loose ones."

"It's fine," Giorno said and got up to go sit down in the dining room. As he had begun to get used to, Bruno sat down a cup of tea in front of him.

"Thank you," Giorno told him as he reached for the sugar bowl to sweeten it.

There was silence for a few minutes until they heard Fugo call up. "Hey, come see what I found!"

Bruno came out of the kitchen and Giorno followed him to the basement door. They descended the stairs and found Fugo standing in front of a door in the wall. He'd opened the door and found some sort of room behind it.

"Check this out; I think it's an old cold war bunker or something," Fugo said as he shined a flashlight into the space.

Bruno and Giorno moved up closer. It looked like Fugo had moved some old boxes out of the front of the door and just found it. He shoved them to the side and stepped into the room. He turned around and did something and lights came on inside the room.

"Well, there's still power down here," Fugo said as he shut off the flashlight and went further in.

Giorno and Bruno stepped forward after him, finding themselves in an open room. The ceiling was about as high as the basement ceiling but lined with metal plates of some sort. The room itself was about the size of the basement and extended onward with a couple doors. There was a sofa and table in the center, surprisingly in decent condition. There was what looked like a kitchen over against the far-left wall, and another door in the right-hand wall.

Fugo walked toward the kitchen and opened a cabinet. "Looks like something ate all the food supplies that was down here. Probably mice or something."

"This is really cool, though," they heard and Giorno saw Mista standing in the doorway. "I heard you yelling and came to see what was going on. To think this is under here the whole time…"

Giorno nodded and felt a sensation that he was beginning to associate with Mista of a rush to his head. So far, Mista was the only person that he'd ever encountered that left him feeling flustered. He had no idea why, but it was beginning to be a problem since Mista seemed to want to do things with him. Not that they weren't in tight quarters as it was. He shook his head to get it off that line of thinking. He needed to concentrate on what was happening now.

Fugo looked around, opening the doors and finding a bedroom, a bathroom, and a store room. The furnishings were all in relatively good condition. He then took out his phone and started snapping pictures of each room and what was in it.

"I try to keep a record of the random stuff we find around here," he explained.

Giorno looked on the coffee table where some books were laid out. He shuffled through them. "Civil Defense manuals," he muttered as he put them back down.

He wandered into the small kitchen and looked in the cabinets and found the old military style rations that were mouse eaten. There were canned goods that the papers had been shredded on. He picked up the distinct mice smell of rodents as he moved the packages of rations around to see if there was anything salvageable left in the cabinets. There was a drawer with cutlery, a small stove, a really old microwave, and a double sink. Giorno turned on the water to find it still functioned. He looked around to see if there was anything else.

"This is really cool," Bruno said as he looked around too. I'll go tell Narancia; he'll get a kick out of this too," he told them as he headed back out the door.

"What's that?" he asked as he saw a dirt wall that had a hole carved into it.

Fugo came over and shined his flashlight into it. "It looks like there's a cave beyond this spot. Maybe a natural cave formation under the ground here."

"Whoa," they heard and turned to see Narancia coming into the room, wearing a dress that was another of the halter dresses he seemed to favor. "This is amazing!"

Fugo smiled at him, and then Giorno realized something. Fugo and Narancia slept in the same room, and Fugo sometimes got this look on his face when he was around. Were they together? He suddenly felt entirely stupid. Of course, they were together, he realized as he watched the way Fugo put his hand on Narancia's back, and just the little things that they both did. He wondered how he could have been so oblivious to such an obvious thing. He guessed they didn't mention it because it was just the way it was.

"You look like you're thinking on something," Mista said from beside Giorno's elbow. He blinked and turned toward him.

"Oh, no, just was thinking about how interesting this is. I wonder who built it?" he said, dismissing his earlier thinking.

"No telling," Fugo said. "Been in the family for a while, so it must have been one of my relatives."

Narancia had disappeared into the bedroom and came out and looked in the store room. Giorno thought he looked like an excited kid sometimes when he got interested in something. He smiled to himself and went to sit on the couch and look at the manuals. Mista followed him over and sat down beside him, picking up one of them and looking it over.

"Whoever it was liked his defense stuff," Mista mused as he flipped through the dusty pages of the one he'd picked up.

"Well, they went and built a bunker under the property, so they obviously were afraid of nuclear attack. I wonder how many times they came down here, or if they just closed it up with the supplies and left it to sit?" Giorno asked as he put down the manual he was looking at.

Narancia picked up one of the manuals. "This is interesting because I've been learning about the cold war lately."

Mista nodded. "Hard to say what they did down here," he said as he looked at Giorno perhaps a little too long.

Fugo came over and snapped a picture of the two of them sitting on the couch together and grinned. "For posterity," he commented and went about finishing the photos of the place.

"This wouldn't be a bad place once it is cleaned up. Maybe able to rent it out too," Fugo said as he put his phone in his pocket. "Other than the mice and rodents having eaten the food, everything is in good condition."

Narancia came back in and looked at Fugo. "Okay, I've seen it, now I'm bored. I'm going back upstairs," he said and swished out the door again.

Giorno got up and Mista followed suit. "I'll go on back up and let you continue your work down here," Giorno told Fugo as he walked toward the door.

"Yeah, I'll be back later," Mista said as he waved to Fugo too.

They went back upstairs and found Bruno and Narancia in the kitchen deciding what to make for dinner. For a second, Mista's hand brushed against Giorno's and he felt a jolt that was decidedly unfamiliar. He watched as Mista walked past him to go into the kitchen. He held his hand and thought about what it could mean.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Monday morning, Giorno was up with the sun and looking through his bag to find a photograph. When he couldn't locate it, he guessed he had to have left it in his room. He sighed and rubbed his face, wincing at the pain from his eye. He obviously was looking like he had lost something because he felt a hand drop on his shoulder.

"What's the matter?" Mista asked.

Giorno looked up and smiled wanly. "I forgot something at my house."

"Was it important?"

"Well, it was the only picture I have of my real father from right after I was born. My mother only had the one copy and she gave it to me when I was old enough to understand I had a step-father and my real father wasn't there. Funny, I was happy when I found out I wasn't actually my step-father's kid," Giorno said with a sad smile.

Mista nodded. "Well, we should go get your photo, then."

Giorno looked up at him and wondered why these people were so nice to him all the time. "That would be an extra trip for Bruno to take me there."

"He won't mind," Mista assured him and turned to go back toward the kitchen.

Giorno turned around and watched him go, thinking again that he was lucky to have found good people to stay with instead of bad ones. He realized he had taken a chance coming here, but it had been a good chance. The amount of good people in the world was a lot more than most people thought, he considered. He certainly couldn't have asked for better people to move into a house with.

Bruno came over and smiled at him. "You need to go back over there?"

"Yeah, if it's no bother. I left an important picture behind that I only have one of," he explained as he tried not to look at Bruno directly.

"Of course, we can go by after I drop Fugo at the school. I'm sure Mista will ride along too," he assured Giorno.

They all got ready and headed out to the school where they left Fugo off at his building and went to his parents' place. He'd quit thinking of it already as his home, because he was at home with the others now. They pulled in and Mista once again got out with him and followed him into the house. He was quiet in case his mother was actually up at this hour, but he found he didn't need to worry. She was passed out on the couch again. He sighed and went up the stairs back to his room.

"Where did you leave it?" Mista asked as he looked around.

"I kept it in my top drawer," he said and pulled it open to rummage under the extra socks and things until he found it. He pulled it out and sighed in relief.

"Can I see?" Mista asked as he tried to look over Giorno's shoulder.

"Sure," he told him and held the picture, so he could see the couple standing holding a baby. The man was tall, strongly built man with blond hair standing beside a shorter, demure woman in a plain looking dress. She looked tired and the man was very serious looking.

"Well, I can see where you get your looks from," Mista said with an arched brow. "Damn. He's a house."

Giorno nodded. "I always wondered if I'd ever get taller, but I think I'm stuck at this height for good. At least I'm not as short as my mother, I suppose," he said with a sigh as he looked at the picture again. "I wonder what happened to him."

"Your mother doesn't know?" Mista asked with a glance up at him.

"No, she never liked talking about him," he said. "I think he showed up twice; once to get her pregnant, once to see me when I was born, and then he never came back."

Mista nodded. "Well, maybe you'll find him one of these days. You haven't even been eighteen for that long, right?"

Giorno nodded. "April is my birthday," he muttered and looked at the door. "We should go before she wakes up. I don't want to explain myself yet."

"Alright, let's go," he said as they left to walk back down the stairs.

As they got to the bottom, Giorno realized his mother was no longer on the couch. He looked around and saw her coming toward the stairs. She stopped and stared at him and Mista. "Who is this?" she asked blearily.

"My friend I've been staying with," Giorno said tightly.

"Oh, you've been gone? Didn't notice," she muttered and went up the stairs.

Giorno felt his heart hurt a little. Despite everything, it would have been nice if she even noticed he was gone. He shook his head and led Mista out the door.

"She could have at least pretended to have noticed I wasn't there," Giorno muttered as he closed the door.

They walked down the driveway and something near the road caught his eye. He frowned and walked past Bruno's car to see what it was. It was a box by the trashcans. He went down and opened the flap, finding several cheeping ducklings in it. He gasped and touched them as they ran around the little box. He picked it up and brought it to the car where Mista was standing watching him.

"Look!" he said as he showed the box to him.

"Are those ducks?" Mista asked with a confused expression. "I mean, obviously they're ducks. I've never seen baby ducks before."

"Do you think we could take them to the Villa?" Giorno asked with a hopeful glance at Mista. He didn't want to leave them there because his step father had killed small animals before that were around.

"I'm sure," Mista said, smiling at him. "I think there's a pond somewhere on the property."

He opened the door and sat down in the passenger seat with the box in his lap. Bruno looked over into the box and arched a brow. "I'm hoping ducks weren't what you came here for?" he said.

"No, but I can't leave them here," Giorno explained. "You think I could find someplace at the Villa to take them?"

Bruno smirked. "I guess, I mean, where else would we take them? Let's take them back to the house. We'll feed them something."

They headed back to the house and Giorno decided to leave the ducklings with Narancia while they were at school. He came into the house to find Narancia sitting in the dining room. He got up when Giorno came in with a box though.

"Can you watch them until after classes?" he asked.

Narancia looked into the box and gasped. "Ducks!"

"Yeah, I found them. I'm going to get some food for them after class and we can make a little pen for them outside," Giorno explained.

"I'll watch them. What do I feed them?" Narancia asked as he took the box.

"Finely chopped greens will work, I think there's some in the fridge. I'll get everything else we need. Thanks!" Giorno said and raced back out the door to Bruno's car again.

After classes, they stopped at a feed store and picked up the right food for them, and a water container that would work until they could be put into a pond. He picked up a little wire to make a pen out of too. He even picked up a little chicken coop box that they could go into to get out of the weather if they wanted.

Fugo paid for everything which Giorno was glad of because he didn't have money. He said that Giorno could pay him back by helping with some of the clean up on the out buildings. Giorno agreed and would definitely help with whatever he wanted. He couldn't do enough to thank Fugo and the others for everything they were doing for him. By that evening, Giorno, with Mista's help, had set up a little pen with the water trough and chicken hutch for them to sleep in. There were seven ducklings altogether and they looked roughly the same age. Giorno figured he would take them to a vet and see what he had found, too.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Diavolo had his ledger open and noted that the Giovanna account was yet to be paid up. He snorted in frustration. He supposed he was going to have to go after the guy's kid now. He supposed he could try and break something but that might make it harder to get money out of the guy. He went to the door and called out.

"Vittorio, Angelica, come here."

The two young people made their way up the stairs to the office and sat down. Vittorio Cataldi was a skinny boy with scars all over his body. He was only nineteen and wanting to advance through the ranks of Diavolo's people quickly. Angelica Attanasio was also young, only sixteen, and looking to make her way in the company. She was a short, very thin girl who had some sort of chronic health condition. It didn't matter to him what it was as long as she did her job. Both of them were attached to Massimo Volpe in the production department, but he figured he could use them to his own ends.

"Boss," Vittorio said from where he sat across from him. Angelica seemed somewhat distracted, but then she was always distracted.

"I have a mission for the two of you. Just a basic snatch. This boy," he pushed a picture of the blond-haired boy toward them. "He's the step-child of someone that owes me some money. Grab him and bring him back here."

"Do we know where he is?" Vittorio asked with a smirk. "He looks easy enough to nab."

"He's known to be staying at this Chesterfield address if he isn't at the home address I've put down there. Try both places. I want him in decent condition, so don't be too rough on him," Diavolo said with a smirk as he turned over the photo to reveal the addresses written on the back. "He also attends Vento Aureo College. I'd rather not get noticed taking him, so try the house addresses first."

The two took the picture and left, leaving Diavolo to consider his next move. He'd get the boy first, then threaten his step-father with his life after that. It was all too easy to scare these suburbanites with a little physical violence toward their families.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Tuesday afternoon, Giorno decided to take a walk around the property. Mista had decided to go walk with him. He didn't know what it meant, but he enjoyed spending time with Giorno a great deal and he looked forward to times they were together. He'd taken to walking to the parklike area in the center of the building when he was between classes to see if Giorno was there. Sometimes he was, but a few times he hadn't been there. Mista was quickly putting together his schedule in his head.

"You like the outdoors a lot, huh?" Mista said with a look around him.

"Yeah, I liked to spend time outside because my parents never went out there, so I could sit on the steps and just watch the world go by," he smiled as he walked with his hands tucked behind his back.

Mista nodded and thought again how much Giorno had been through, but still was so calm about things and had a determination to attend school. That was impressive because of everything, school would have suffered because of his home life. Yet, he'd managed to come through it with a desire to go to school and do something with his life.

They walked in silence for some time before they both stopped, hearing voices from nearby. Mista put his finger to his lips and crept toward the sound. He was surprised as he looked around a bush to find four very large men camped out on the property. He nearly jumped out of his skin when Giorno came up beside him. They watched for a minute to see what they did.

They seemed to have pitched a tent and built a small firepit in one of the clearing areas. Mista could see that one of them had dark hair, one seemed to have reddish hair, while the other two looked to be blond or light haired. They were all massively muscled and looked like someone he didn't want to mess with. He waved at Giorno to come with him back toward the house.

Giorno looked like he wanted to go say something to them but Mista wasn't going over there, just in case they were dangerous. Who knew where they'd come from?

"Who are those guys?" Giorno said as they got near the house.

"I dunno, but we'll tell Fugo about them," Mista told him.

Giorno stopped to check the duckling's water and found several of them swimming in it. Mista watched him and felt that same sensation of amazement at how kind of a person Giorno was despite growing up with a violent home life…

He smiled to himself and went inside while Giorno checked on the ducks. He noticed that Fugo was rummaging in the fridge.

"Um, hey Fugo, so there's these four scary-looking guys camped out on the property," he said as he came up to him.

Fugo turned and yawned. "Hmm, they threaten you or anything?"

"No, just camped out there," he answered.

Fugo nodded. "I'll deal with them later, I didn't sleep well last night so Narancia and I are going to bed early. We both had a round of flashbacks to the hospital along with the requisite hot flashes and jitters." He paused and yawned again.

Mista nodded and watched as Fugo disappeared up the stairs with some fruit. He looked over as Giorno came into the house from outside. He came over and smiled at Mista.

"Did you tell him?" Giorno asked.

"Yeah, he's gonna deal with them tomorrow. So, tonight we're on our own. Bruno is out of the house for the night," Mista said as he went into the kitchen to find out what could be had for dinner.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Looking Glass

Fugo got a decent night's sleep and woke up feeling somewhat refreshed. He'd only woken up once with a cold sweat. He patted Narancia who was curled into a ball beside him clutching the pillow. He almost wanted to let him sleep a bit longer, but the day had to start at some point and he had to go figure out what these four "scary-looking" guys were doing on the property. He wondered what Mista meant by scary-looking though. He shook his head then shook Narancia a little bit.

"Wha?" Narancia murmured as he came awake. "Mornin' already?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm going out to see what these guys Mista and Giorno saw were doing. You coming with or you gonna stay in bed?" he asked as Narancia sat up and stretched his arms over his head.

"I'll come with you. See what these guys are up to," he said as he yawned.

"Alright, I'm gonna get dressed and meet you downstairs," he said and patted Narancia on the leg.

Four random guys on the property. Hmm, he wondered what they were doing and why they were there. He was thinking about it when he heard Giorno starting to move around in the living room. He looked over to see him sitting up. He thought he was an interesting guy. He knew Mista was more than a little attached to him already, which made him wonder. Mista was the same age as him, so it wasn't like there was much difference in them that way. He looked up as Giorno came and sat down at the table.

"How are you this morning?" Fugo asked as he prepared the tea for everyone. First one down always put on a kettle of water for everyone.

Giorno looked sleepy still. "I'm fine, why are you down so early?"

"Going out to see these guys you and Mista saw yesterday. Figure out what they're doing on the property and everything before I leave for the day. What did they look like to you?" he asked as he sat cups down on the table to fill with water.

"They were really big guys," Giorno said with a frown. "Like, big muscles and everything. Looked like some sort of body builders or something."

"Hmm. Well, we'll see what they want," Fugo said as he took off the kettle and poured him, Narancia, and Giorno a cup. He hadn't seen Mista or Bruno yet.

"Should you go out there? I mean, Mista seemed pretty worried about them. And they look like they could do something to someone if they wanted to…" Giorno asked as he stirred his tea.

"I'll take Narancia with me," Fugo said with a half-smile as he heard someone coming down the stairs. He glanced over and saw that it was Narancia, clothed in one of his dresses as usual. "Have your tea first, then we'll go check on these guys."

"Okay," he said as he picked up his tea, already sweetened and ready. Fugo knew how he took it by heart by now.

Fugo sat down and drank his own tea, noting that Giorno glanced between them now and then. He supposed they had never explicitly stated what their relationship was to each other, but it was just so much a normal part of his life, Fugo never thought of it as strange. He smiled, though, because he could tell that Giorno had figured it out. Giorno was very observant. He heard someone else coming down and looked up to see Mista this time.

"Morning," he said as he went to grab his own cup. "You're all up early," he commented as he sat down with his tea.

"Going to check on those guys you saw yesterday. Which part were they on?" Fugo asked as he finished his tea. He glanced over to see Narancia was almost done as well.

Mista looked at him and indicated direction with his hand. "Over on that side," he said. "I dunno what direction that's supposed to be. They're near one of the other buildings."

"Okay, you ready, Narancia?" Fugo asked as the other man put his cup in the kitchen.

"Sure, let's see what these guys have to say about showing up here," Narancia said with a glance at Mista and Giorno.

"Well, hopefully they're not bad guys," Mista said with some trepidation. "I mean, they were tough looking."

"We'll see," Fugo said and headed out the door with Narancia on his heels. It had been a while since he'd taken a walk around the property, and he supposed he should do so more often. If he had random people showing up on the place and camping out, he should keep a better eye on things.

After they'd walked for a bit, they saw what looked like a camp that had been set up against one of the buildings. In the camp were four very large men sitting around what looked like a firepit. Fugo cleared his throat as they got near.

"Um, excuse me?" The four of them turned to stare at Fugo and Narancia. Fugo swallowed thickly and smiled at them. "Hello, you seem to be camped out on my property?"

The dark haired one stood up, a towering man. "Oh, we thought this was vacant. We just got here a couple days ago."

"Um, well, I don't mind you staying here, if you're careful with the fire and everything. Who are you and what exactly are you doing here?"

The dark haired one nodded. "I'm Kars, this is Santana," he pointed to the red haired one. "Wamuu," he pointed to a blond man, "and Esidisi," he said and pointed out the last man who had very light-colored hair. "We're a group of followers of the Aztec religions and devoted to physical perfection," Kars told him and flexed his arm a little. "We've been looking for a permanent place to make a home for a while now."

Fugo nodded to them. "Ah, well, I have the space, and no one is using it right now…"

Santana spoke up. "We could keep an eye on the property and make sure there's no trespassers," he said.

"Yeah," Kars nodded. "In exchange for a place to stay, we could do that. We do jog quite frequently around the area. Oh, I did notice something over there," he said and pointed to a spot a little further away. "Seems there's a sinkhole there, you should be wary of it."

"Ah, well, thanks for the warning," he said with a smile. "Um, my name's Fugo, and this is Narancia. We live just up the way in the main house. If anything comes up, come knock on the door," he said with a glance back up to the main house.

Fugo grabbed Narancia's hand and turned back toward the house. He shook his head as he walked. "I guess I can see why they were scary-looking. Those four guys were massive…"

Narancia nodded. "Yeah, they were big. Strange lot, too," Narancia mused as they came past the duck pen. Fugo looked in on the little creatures and smiled. Who knew what strange things showed up at Passione Villa?

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

The bar was a local one called Little Feat. Bruno had been to it a few times over the last couple years, and always found it a welcoming place for everyone. He'd brought Narancia and Fugo a time or two once they both turned twenty-one. There were often people of every stripe there, and sometimes, Bruno just wanted to have a drink and talk to some of the locals.

"How you been, Buccellati?" the bartender, a man named Formaggio, asked.

"Doing well," he said as he sipped his drink. He'd ordered a tequila sunrise, one of his rare indulgences.

He noticed a man at the end of the bar drinking by himself that was drinking whiskey shots. He took notice of him because he was one of the few people in the bar alone besides himself. The bar itself was relatively busy tonight, but that was how Bruno enjoyed it. He talked to a couple people that sat down beside him, and he noticed the man at the end of the bar was starting to wobble in his place. He seemed to be intent on drinking himself into a stupor if he kept it up in his condition. Bruno flagged down Formaggio.

"Hey, what's his deal?" he asked, nodding toward the man at the end of the bar.

"Him?" Formaggio said and glanced down there. "Oh, that's Abbacchio. He'll drink until he passes out. I don't really know why but he comes in about once a week like this. I don't know that he has anywhere to go because he'll eventually just crash out in front of the bar and sleep it off."

Bruno frowned and wondered what made someone want to drink that much to excess. He continued with his drink and glanced down the bar every so often. Finally, this Abbacchio finished his last drink and stood up, stumbling toward the door. No one paid him any attention as he left. Bruno finished off his drink.

"Thanks, Formaggio. See you next time," he said and waved at him.

"Later, Buccellati," he said with a quick wave before he served the next person.

Bruno came outside and saw that Abbacchio hadn't made it very far. He'd sat down against the building and passed out. He wondered if he shouldn't just leave it. After all, it wasn't his concern that some random stranger got passed out drunk at a bar. Still, something nagged at him. He couldn't just leave him there. He sighed and went over, shaking him awake as much as he could.

"What?" he murmured and blinked wearily.

"Up we go," Bruno said and hefted him easily up to stand. He stumbled against him, but Bruno managed to keep him steady. He managed to get him to the car and leaned him against the side while he fumbled the key out. He got him sat down in the seat where he fell immediately asleep again as Bruno buckled him in. He went around and got in to head home. He got there just after midnight. He wondered if anyone would be up at this hour. He thought maybe Fugo and Narancia if they were having trouble sleeping again.

He shook his head and decided just to walk him up to the house himself. He went around and manhandled him to stand outside the car.

"Here we go," Bruno said as he steered the stumbling man toward the house. "Just a bit farther, then you can sleep it off inside somewhere safe."

"Who er ya?" he muttered but Bruno was too occupied with keeping him from falling and knocking them both down.

Bruno got him in the door and saw Giorno was sleeping on the sofa but he figured that putting this guy on the floor by the couch would be fine. He had the extra pillows and blankets for him. He figured he should wake Giorno and tell him that he was putting a drunk man down beside him and see if he wanted to stay there or go upstairs to his room or Mista's. He nearly fell as he got him to one of the chairs and dropped him into it. He huffed a breath and rolled his shoulder. He was heavy. He had already fallen asleep in the chair and Bruno decided to just leave him there.

He shook Giorno gently.

"Giorno?" he inquired.

Giorno woke up and blinked at him. "Huh? What?" he asked and looked to be trying to figure out where he was.

"Hey, I brought home someone from the bar, and he's sleeping off a drunk in the chair over there. Do you want to go upstairs or stay down here with him? You can sleep in my room and I'll take the couch if you want." Bruno figured he was the one who brought him home, so he wasn't going to make Giorno deal with him come morning.

"Oh, okay," he said and blearily rubbed his eyes. "I can do that. Which room is yours?"

"First one on the left at the top of the stairs. I'll wake you in the morning," he said as Giorno stumbled up the stairs, still half asleep.

Bruno sighed and made himself comfortable on the couch to the sound of his surprise guest's occasional snoring.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Leone Abbacchio hadn't thought much about getting drunk. He usually got drunk at least once a week, and to be honest, he would stay that way if he could have. He suffered from debilitating levels of PTSD with horrible nightmares if he didn't drink himself into a stupor before going to sleep. Memories of his time on the police force found their way into his head way too easily and he could only dampen them to sleep. He always woke up somewhere different, so that wasn't unusual.

He didn't expect to wake up in a strange house. He blinked and let his eyes adjust to the light coming into the room. He picked his head up and looked around blearily. He needed the bathroom, but he had no idea where one was. He had no idea where he was, but at least he wasn't outside, he guessed. He got up and stumbled around a sofa with someone sleeping on it and saw the toilet. Ah, he thought, that's better. He stopped himself though because he realized he was in a kitchen. Wait, why was there a toilet in a kitchen. He shook his head and turned around nearly running into a man with bobbed black hair and bright blue eyes.

"You're awake," he said and Leone thought his head might explode.

"Yeah, where's the bathroom?" he asked as he tried to focus on this person he'd never seen before.

"Just in here," he told him and led him to a doorway nearby. He was grateful as he relieved himself and came out to find the stranger was still waiting there.

"Hem, where am I?" he asked as he glanced around the room.

"My place," he said, running a hand over his head. "I brought you home after you passed out just outside the bar last night. I didn't want to leave you there."

Leone nodded and stuck his hand out toward him. "Leone Abbacchio," he said with a sigh.

"Bruno Buccellati," he responded and took his hand.

Bruno was wearing a rumpled shirt and jeans as he stood there looking at him. "Um, so thanks, I guess for helping me last night," he said and looked around. "I should leave you alone."

"You should stay for tea at least," Bruno said and turned to go in the kitchen.

Leone shrugged to himself but figured it would be rude not to stay at least for tea. He was kind of glad he hadn't said coffee, as he didn't drink it. He sat down at the dining table and waited while Bruno put a kettle on for the tea. He sat a cup down in front of him and then went back to wait on the water. As he was sitting there, Leone heard someone coming down the nearby stairs. He turned to see another man with a blue t-shirt and cap on come into the kitchen.

"Hey," he said and stared at Leone a second. "We have a guest this morning?" he asked Bruno as he stepped into the kitchen.

"Yeah, this is Leone Abbacchio," Bruno said with a gesture toward him. "I brought him home last night."

"Didn't figure you for the bring 'em home type," the other man said with a look at him.

"Not like that," Bruno sighed. "This is Guido Mista. He's one of the others that lives here. We have a house full of various people."

Bruno poured the hot water into the cup in front of Leone as this Mista sat down at the table with him. "You look a bit rough, man," Mista said as he placed his own cup down for Bruno to fill with water.

"Yeah, had a bit too much to drink last night," Leone said sadly. "Though that's not unusual these days," he muttered the last, looking at his cup.

These people were nice and he had to wonder what they'd expect out of him. Were they really doing this just to be helpful or were they going to want some sort of payment? He didn't know for sure, but it wasn't the first time he'd wound up in a stranger's house. However, it was the first time he'd felt welcomed at a stranger's house.

"Do you live near here?" Mista asked with a glance up at him.

"Yeah, I have an apartment in the area, assuming we're still near the bar," Leone said as he sipped his tea. It wasn't bad tea.

"Yeah, we're nearby." Bruno sat down opposite him and cradled his teacup in both hands, sipping it thoughtfully.

"Do you live alone?" Bruno asked as he watched him.

"I do," Leone answered, idly stirring his tea as he sat there. "I don't stay home a lot of the time, though. Nothing there for me, really," he commented.

"You want to stay here today and deal with your hangover rather than going home and being alone?" Bruno asked.

Leone looked at him with a little shock. He'd never been asked to stay at someone's place he'd woken up at. Usually, they were trying to get rid of him. He started to say something but Mista spoke up.

"Yeah, it's Saturday, and we're not doing anything today. I planned on walking with Giorno this morning, and checking on the ducks," Mista told them.

Bruno smirked at him. "Walking with Giorno again?"

"Yeah, it's nice," Mista said and Leone didn't miss the slight red tint to his cheeks. Well, that was interesting.

"So why do you go to that bar and not another one?" Leone asked suddenly. He might as well figure out what kind of people he was dealing with.

Bruno sipped his tea again and looked thoughtful. "Well, they're welcoming to everyone, and they have some fun theme nights."

Leone nodded. Their theme nights were often something to do with the queer community like drag queen bingo, or something like that. They often had other nights dedicated to other themes like fetish nights, and musicians that came in. Sometimes they had karaoke. He wondered if that meant that Bruno was also in the community…

He looked up as another person came down the stairs, this one a thin blond haired boy with blue eyes, one of which had the fading bruise of a black eye. He was wearing what looked like a loose set of pajamas. He yawned as he entered the dining room and sat down. Before he even said anything, Leone noticed that Bruno got up and poured him a cup of tea.

"Giorno, this is Leone Abbacchio, the guy that I brought in last night," Bruno said as he sat the cup down in front of him.

The blond turned and looked at him. "Oh, okay, I was mostly asleep when you had me move up to your room last night," he said as he picked up the cup of tea.

"Nice to meet you," Leone said with a nod. "I'm sorry my presence made you have to move last night," he said with a slight nod.

"No problem, Bruno's bed was comfortable, more than the couch is," he said with a smirk as he sipped the tea.

"I was wondering where you were when I came down," Mista said and Leone saw the way he kept watching the blond boy. It seemed that there was something there. Unspoken as of yet, it seemed.

Giorno finished his tea and stood up. "I think I'll take a walk around outside," he explained as he moved toward the door. Mista stood up, and finished his tea off.

"I'll go with you again," he said as he tailed the blond out the front door. Leone watched them with a bemused look on his face.

Bruno smiled at him. "They're still figuring out what's going on between them," he explained to Leone. "It really is kind of adorable to watch them circling around the mutual attraction and not quite getting it yet."

Leone smiled and nodded. "They'll figure it out, eventually. They look young," he said as he glanced toward the doorway again.

"They're both still teenagers. Eighteen and nineteen. Who knows what will stay and what will go as far as their interests go," Bruno said with a sigh.

"You can't be that much older than them," Leone commented, looking over at him.

"I'm twenty-three, but I go to school with them," Bruno told him. Our other roommates are about my age, it's just those two that are fresh faced teenagers trying to figure out their lives." Bruno smiled again. "I wish I'd figured out things earlier."

"There's always time to learn new things about yourself," Leone said as he drained the last of his tea. "Um, I really should be going. I thank you again for the tea and for the safe place to sleep last night. It means a lot," Leone spoke as he was getting up.

"Here, take my number," Bruno said as he grabbed a notepad from the middle of the table and scribbled down his number. He handed it over with a sly looking grin. "In case you need a safe place to sleep it off again."

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Vittorio and Angelica thought it would be an easy grab. After all, he was just one eighteen-year-old. How much trouble could he be? He wouldn't want to fight with them when they had a knife on them. They first went to his parents' place and found him gone. They checked his room and found he'd taken off with some of his clothes and things. So, they figured he must be living in the other place.

They got there and found themselves outside a large piece of property close to Chesterfield. It was a big place and the house was set back a ways from the road. It was almost dusk so they should have been able to get him pretty easily. They crept from the road where they parked the van that they would use. Aside from the knife that Vittorio carried, Angelica had zip ties for his hands and feet once they got him to the van.

"Do you think he'll be easy?" Angelica asked again as they walked toward the house.

"What's he gonna do against a guy with a knife?" Vittorio asked as he played with the blade.

"You said he comes out to walk at night," she said as she crouched beside a bush with him.

Vittorio nodded. "Yeah, he comes out to walk around at just after dusk and in the morning, so it would be an ideal time to grab him."

They waited until they saw their quarry walk out of the house. He wasn't alone, but that was okay. They could grab the other guy and leave him tied up outside. They carefully snuck along behind them, waiting for a good opportunity to get the jump on them. They were about to move when they heard someone step on a branch behind them. They both turned around and looked up to see a massive looking man with blond hair standing there looking down on them.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" he asked in a deep voice.

Vittorio and Angelica both took off back to the van. There was no saying they had to deal with big guards on the property. They got back in the van and picked up the phone.

"Sir," Vittorio said as Diavolo picked up the phone on the other end.

"What is it? Did you grab the kid?"

"No sir, there's some sort of guards on their property that we couldn't get by to get to him," he explained. "Big, strong looking guys. Might not be best to nab him from here," he said nervously, hoping that Diavolo told them to come in and leave the nab for another time.

"Hmm, maybe I'll have Tiziano and Squalo take care of this. You two come back and I'll talk to them about doing the grab. I didn't realize there would be complications," he said and hung up.

Vittorio sighed and started the van.

"Alright, we don't have to grab the kid anymore, he's gonna put someone else on it," he told Angelica.

"That's good, because that guy was scary!" she exclaimed and buckled her seatbelt as they took off back to the main building where Diavolo was.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Even Vision

The first of the out buildings had finally been fixed up after another week, and Fugo quickly found someone willing to rent it for a reasonable rate. He was an interesting fellow, a guy named Mikitaka Hazekura, and he claimed that he was an alien living on the planet Earth. Fugo wondered if the guy had all of his brain cells in working order or not, but he seemed nice enough and he had the money for the house.

Giorno decided to go and meet with their new resident and check on the ducks the night that he moved into the place. He also thought he might try to find the four men that were camping out on the property and say hello to them. He got outside and was feeding the ducks when he sensed someone nearby. He looked up to see that he was being watched by the large guys.

"Um, hi!" he said as he looked around to see the four of them watching him intently as he fed the ducks.

"We noticed your ducks," the dark haired one said.

"Yes, I'm Giorno," he said with a glance around at the four of them. All of them had to be over six feet tall and were massively muscled. They all wore similar simple outfits of linen shirts and pants, though. "Would you like to hold one of them? They're quite tame," he said as he reached down and picked one up to show them.

"I'm Kars, this is Santana, Wamuu, and Esidisi. We were doing an evening walk around and heard the ducks cheeping," the dark haired one said and gestured to the others.

Giorno walked over to him and held out the little creature. Kars hesitated but reached out to take the tiny creature. It seemed perfectly content to stay nuzzled into his hand as he petted it with the other one. He had a smile on his face as the others gathered around him to pet the duckling. Giorno smiled too because these men were so big compared to the tiny duck. After a few minutes of passing around the duck to each other and talking to it, they handed it back to Giorno. He gently put it back in the little pen where it immediately went for the water.

"They're so small," Santana said as he brushed his red hair behind his ears. "Will they get very big?"

Giorno shrugged. "I have to take them to a vet still to even see what they are. I don't think they're all the same kind of duck, so we'll see how big they get."

"Giorno!" he heard behind him and turned to see Mista coming out of the house. "I was wondering where you went off to." He looked around at the four other men and tried to stand as straight as he could.

"Oh, Mista," Giorno said as he put down some more feed for the ducklings. "The guys were just checking out the ducks," he explained as the four men still watched them.

"Ah, that's cool," Mista said, nodding to him. "They're already growing some. When they get big enough, we can take them to that little pond."

"We've seen that place," Kars said with a nod of his head. "They would be very happy there when they are bigger."

"Yeah, and they should grow pretty quickly," Giorno said with a smile. "Well, I think I'll go for my walk. You guys are welcome to stay and watch the ducks if you want, though."

Giorno nodded to them and turned toward the house where their new resident was staying. Mista followed along behind him as they left the four guys to watch the ducks feed and splash in the water. They got to the house and knocked on it. It was opened by a tall, thin man with light blonde hair and a nose ring that had a chain going to his left earring.

"Hi, I'm Giorno, this is Mista, we live up at the main house," he explained, smiling at him.

"Oh, hi. I'm Mikitaka, nice to meet other humans," he said and smiled at them.

Giorno blinked and remembered that Fugo said something about him claiming he was an alien or something. "Yeah, I just was on my evening walk and thought I'd say hello."

"Okay," he said and closed the door.

Giorno looked at Mista and shrugged before heading off toward the path he usually walked when he did his circuit of the property.

"So, you said that you lived here," Mista pointed out as they walked. "Does that mean you've decided to stay?"

Giorno smiled at him and nodded. "I think so."

"You know, if you ever want to sleep on a bed, you're welcome to share mine. I have a queen bed and there's plenty room," Mista said with a glance upward at the stars as they came out.

Giorno felt his cheeks heat a little but he smiled again and nodded. "Maybe I will."

They walked in silence for a few more minutes.

"Do you think there will be many more people to come to stay here?" Mista asked as they made the turn to go back to the house. The night was beginning to set in on the world around them.

Giorno shook his head thoughtfully. "I don't know. Fugo is getting a lot of work done on the place. He's gotten the bunker cleaned up, and he's started on another of the out buildings. He finally got the toilet out of the kitchen and upstairs," he said with a smirk as they came closer to the lights of the house.

Mista seemed to want to say something and stopped, looking around for a moment. Giorno wondered what he was thinking, because he really wished he could tell. He liked being around Mista and noticed that he tended to come with him on his walks and stayed near him. There was something different about how he felt around Mista than the others, and it was confusing to say the least. He wanted to get to know Mista even more, and he enjoyed the way he had of taking things as they came with his laid back attitude toward everything.

"Will you ever take off your hoodie around us?" he asked, surprising Giorno out of his thoughts. He had yet to remove it around them. He crossed his arms and felt on the spot, but he knew that Mista wasn't asking to blame him for not doing it; he was genuinely concerned that he wasn't willing to go that far. He trusted them, but could he trust them completely?

"I think so," he said. "I just need time to get used to everyone before I do that. It is a very personal thing," he told him but nodded. "I just have to feel the time is right."

"Okay, because you even sleep in that thing. Whatever it is, Giorno, you can trust us. We're your friends," he told him and put his hands on Giorno's shoulders.

"I know. I just…have had bad experiences with that in the past," he said and ducked his head a little. "I just have always been safer covering myself up from the world." It was symbolic as well as physical. He kept himself covered from the world around him.

"You're safe now," Mista said, squeezing his shoulders again. "After all, we have four muscle bound duck watchers around. No one would dare do anything to harm someone here."

Giorno smiled and nodded as they continued on their walk up to the house. He was glad it was dark because he knew his face had colored.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Formaggio received the call late at night that his friend needed to disappear immediately. Risotto Nero wasn't known for his amicable nature so when he said he was in trouble, Formaggio took him seriously. He didn't expect to find him beaten to the point of having bandages everywhere and blood still leaking from a couple of the places on him. He at least seemed to have been seen to, but he looked like he had really been beaten within an inch of his life.

"What the hell happened?" Formaggio asked as he helped Risotto get to his car. "You look like death warmed over!"

"Getting out isn't as easy as getting in," was all he said. "I need to go off the grid for a while."

"I might know someone," Formaggio had called the number that Buccellati had left with him. He knew they were going to be looking for tenants and might have the space for Nero to hide out from whoever was after him.

"Hello?" came Buccellati's voice over the line. They were sitting pulled off the road near the bar.

"Hey, Buccellati. It's Formaggio from the bar. I was wondering if you would be able to help a friend of mine that needs a place to stay," he said, glancing over at Nero who was dozing it seemed. He really did look rough. "Needs to be off the grid, if you know what I mean."

There was a pause. "Yeah, sure, we've actually just found a bunker in the basement that would be good for someone to stay in. I'll give you the address," he said and gave him where to go.

In a few minutes, he pulled into the large piece of property and managed to get Nero to his feet on the other side. He was hoping that Nero wouldn't put them off immediately with his personality. He walked him to the front door to knock and waited.

Inside, Fugo and Bruno both looked up at the door. "I'll get it," Bruno said as he headed to the front door and opened it to find Formaggio standing there with a man he'd never seen before. He had bandages covering half his face and bruises over the other half, and he was leaning heavily on Formaggio. He had dark eyes and black hair. His clothes were in reasonable shape but there were bandages peeking from under his shirt sleeves. There was something about him that was just a general aura of menace. He wasn't even standing on his own, but he seemed dangerous just by being around him.

"Oh, um, come in," Bruno said with a clearing of his throat.

Formaggio came into the living room and sat his friend down in the chair.

"This is Risotto Nero. As you can see, he needs to hide out for a while," Formaggio explained and gave him a wan smile.

"I see," Bruno asked with an arched brow. "Is it police involved, because we can't…"

"I'm not running from the cops. I'm just looking for a place to lay low for a while until the heat dies down from my ex-employer," Nero said with a one-eyed glance to Bruno. "I made the mistake of trying to leave his employ. They left me for dead. They won't be looking for me, but I need to lay low for a while to be sure."

Narancia came down right then, surprising Nero into jerking toward him. He paused and quickly walked into the kitchen, trying to ignore Nero's presence. Bruno nodded at them. "I'd say let's put him down in the bunker for now," he said to Fugo. "Formaggio, can you help him walk?"

"Yeah," Formaggio said and stood up from the sofa to help Nero to his feet.

Fugo led the way downstairs and Bruno followed up behind them. The basement was cleaned up significantly since before, and there was nothing in the way to the bunker. Fugo hit the lights and led them into the space.

"Well, this should work to hide out for a while, I'd think," he said as he gestured around. "I just got it straightened up this last weekend. There's no food down here yet, but you are welcome to come upstairs and eat with us."

"I'll probably have Formaggio bring me some things to have down here so I don't have to come up," Nero said as he sat down heavily on the small sofa. Formaggio stood up and looked around with an appraising eye.

"Nice space," he commented.

"Yeah, we figure it was built as a cold war bunker. It was dirty but in good condition," Bruno explained.

Formaggio looked around the place, checking the kitchen area for what was in it. He turned around and glanced back at Nero. "Will this work?"

"Should be fine. There a bed?" he asked.

Bruno nodded and pointed to the bedroom. "Right over there. I think the sheets are clean too. Fugo was working down here recently to clean it up for a possible room to rent."

"Then that's all I'll need tonight," Nero said as he staggered to his feet.

Bruno nodded. "Um, do you need to stay the night?" he asked Formaggio.

"I probably should, if you have the space?" he asked.

"Sure, I'll have Giorno go upstairs for the night and you can use the couch. Giorno, I think, is getting tired of sleeping on that couch by now," Bruno said with a slight smile.

Fugo and Bruno went back upstairs to find Giorno and Narancia sitting at the dining room table. Bruno sat down beside Giorno and smiled. "Do you mind staying up with Mista tonight? We have an extra visitor and the sofa down in the bunker isn't big enough to sleep on."

Giorno colored just a tad and nodded. "I could do that. Mista said I could share whenever I wanted," he said and smiled a little.

Narancia, though, seemed out of sorts. He stood up and shook his head. "I think I'm going on to bed early," he said and headed up the stairs.

Fugo watched him go with a little trepidation. He hoped he was okay. "So, how did you and Narancia get together?" Giorno finally asked after a few minutes.

Fugo smiled. "Well, we just kinda were friends when we were in that shady mental hospital. Then, the more stuff we went through, the less we wanted to be apart. Eventually, when I got this place, I got him to come live here, and we just started comforting each other and things went from there." Fugo paused and looked over at Giorno. "Why the sudden interest?"

Giorno's face pinked a bit. "N-no reason. I was just wondering."

Mista came down some time later and flopped into a seat by Giorno. "Um, Mista?" Giorno said, looking at him. "There's someone else staying tonight, so do you mind if I share with you?" he asked.

"Of course not," Mista said with a smile. "I told you that my bed is more comfortable than that couch, and it is plenty big to share."

After a few minutes, Fugo's attention went to the stairs when he heard a banging sound from above. "Oh, dear," he muttered and got up from the table. He then went up the stairs.

Giorno, not knowing what was happening, followed him. Fugo came into their room to find Narancia having an episode. He was banging on the walls, muttering to himself about "snakes within snakes" being there. He would now and then would yell "Let me out" as he moved around the room. He looked disheveled as though he'd been combing his fingers through his hair and he was pacing back and forth with heavy steps. Fugo rushed in and pulled him down onto the bed and started talking softly to him to get him to calm down.

Giorno stood in the doorway and watched, surprised by the incident. "Is he going to be okay?" he asked as Narancia seemed to fight Fugo's hold on him a little bit. He always fought being held at first.

"He'll be fine once he calms down," Fugo explained as he petted his hands through Narancia's hair. He was starting to calm down a bit, not fighting as much. "This happens now and then; flashbacks and episodes triggered by what happened in that awful place."

"What kind of things happened that were bad enough to cause something so severe?" Giorno asked, truly curious as to what would have caused such a thing.

"Unethical experiments, in particular about fear. We were shown things to induce fear and panic and then had the results recorded. It was some pretty terrible stuff," Fugo said as Narancia seemed to have fallen asleep against him. He laid him down on the bed and put his feet up into the bed.

"Does it happen often?" Giorno asked, concerned for his new friends.

"Not very," Fugo said as he brushed Narancia's hair back out of his face and felt his forehead. "I'll stay with him in case he wakes up; he might be confused if he wakes without someone around."

Giorno nodded and went back downstairs to find that Formaggio had come up from the basement. He was sitting at the dining room table with Bruno and Mista.

"I must thank you again," he said as he sipped a cup of tea.

"Oh, how's Narancia?" Bruno asked when he saw Giorno come into the room.

"Better. He's asleep now," he said with a smile. "Fugo's taking care of him."

"Good," Bruno said as he sat a cup down for Giorno. "Come, have a cup of tea before bed."

Giorno nodded and sat down. He felt somewhat out of sorts since he was going to spend the night with Mista tonight. He didn't even know how to approach the way he was feeling, and he had no idea what Mista felt. He was convinced, though, that Mista was just being nice and nothing more. He knew that it would be a lot to ask to have everything go in his favor. He felt the itch on his forearms starting again and had to be careful. He was nervous and that would lead down another road for him if he wasn't careful.

He was grateful for everything that these people had done for him. He was getting tired though as he finished his tea. At night, Bruno fixed chamomile tea for everyone. He yawned and Mista stood up.

"Well, come on then, you look tired. Should get to sleep," he said and gestured to Giorno.

Giorno nodded and stood up. "Thanks for the tea," he said to Bruno as he followed Mista up the stairs. He was somewhat nervous as he entered Mista's room for the first time.

"Your room is nice," Giorno said as he looked around.

The space was open and consisted of just a bed and a dresser. Thick curtains covered the one window to block out the light. The colors were muted blues and white on the covers of the bed. He felt his face warm because he'd never slept in a bed with someone else before. It wasn't like he'd been allowed to go to other kids' houses when he was younger. Even if he'd made friends with the kids, that was. He'd never been invited to another person's house before he came here.

"Thanks, I try to keep it neat," he said as he jumped into the bed on the right side. "Do you want to do anything before going to sleep?"

"Ah, yeah, I'll change into my night clothes," he said and nodded. "I'll go down and change in the bathroom."

He went down and saw Formaggio was getting settled on the couch and he went to his bag and pulled out his night clothes and disappeared into the bathroom to change. He came out and put his other clothes back with his bag and then headed back upstairs to find that Mista had changed for the night as well. He smiled and nodded to him as he got into the bed on the other side.

"Well, good night," Mista said and reached over to the side table to turn out the lamp.

Giorno laid there in the dark for a long time thinking and not moving. He felt Mista shift every now and then and he tried to be still. He was getting tired though, and the bed was quite a bit more comfortable than the couch was. He slowly found himself falling into a deep, comfortable sleep.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Tiziano and Squalo had their orders. Pick up the kid as soon as possible. They had scouted the place he was staying and decided there were too many people around there that could interfere. The "big guys" that they'd been warned about often jogged around the property and were a hassle to deal with even with guns at the ready. For that reason they decided to try at the school. There would be people around but none that were paying attention to what was going on around them. They would be able to sneak up and get him to come with them under threat of violence if he didn't comply.

They had found him easily enough, sitting on a bench in an area between the buildings. He was reading a book and around him, other students passed by and went in and out of the area. It was a tough grab because he was never alone it seemed like. The time he was waiting at school seemed to be the only time he spent a lot of time alone and gave them an opportunity to catch him.

They were making their way across the area toward him when Tiziano was run into by someone.

Toshikazu Hazamada was trying to make it across the center area of the school with a bag of freshly rolled joints. He didn't know how to roll them himself, so he had to get a friend to roll them for him. He'd smoked while he was there, of course, maybe a bit too much to be making it through the crowded area. He wasn't really looking where he was going and ran right into a tall man with gray hair and dark skin. The package he was holding fell, and he watched as the perfectly rolled joints went flying all over the ground. He sighed as around him people scrambled to pick them up. He'd have to get some more, he thought to himself.

Tiziano and Squalo realized there were too many people now, moving around them. It would be too suspicious if they broke out of the crowd to nab the kid now. There were way too many people watching them. Both of them broke off and escaped out from the side and went back to their van.

"He's a pain in the ass to grab," Squalo said, brushing a hand over his red hair.

"Never being alone is the biggest problem. I have a feeling we're going to have to get lucky with this one. I hope the boss doesn't mind it taking a bit longer to get him," Tiziano mumbled as they watched the students walk into and out of the buildings.

"He wants him, but I don't know what good it will do getting his money out of the kid's stepdad. He obviously doesn't care about the kid much, since he's off living with other random people," Squalo pointed out.

Tiziano nodded. "I think we're going to have to keep watching for the best chance to get our hands on him. Today showed that we can't grab him sitting in the school. Our best bet is to catch him walking."

"Too bad this school is so small," Squalo mumbled. "The kid doesn't walk a lot to get between buildings or classes."

"Just means we're going to have to be smart about it. There will be a point he's alone and we can grab him. The boss doesn't want the cops involved if we can help it, so we have to be careful not to cause a scene. Today was bad enough," Tiziano said with a sigh as he leaned on the window of the van.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

Clear Vision

Giorno started staying the night with Mista from that point on. He found that the bed was comfortable, and he slept well on it. He still spent lots of time with Mista, especially during his walks around the property and when he went to check on the ducks and the encampment, as he started to call the four men who were camped out on the property. He fell into an easy routine with the members of the household, and it was nice. Each morning, Bruno would drive them to the school where they would spend most the day. Then, at five when Fugo got off, he would drive everyone home again where Narancia would sometimes have dinner ready for them, and other times would wait until the others got home. Fugo worked more on the out buildings and quickly got another one ready to rent out. Their basement resident was quiet, and his only visitor was Formaggio.

It was the next week when walking in the evening with Mista, he heard a dog barking nearby.

"A dog," Mista observed and started looking around to see if there was a stray out on the property. "We should go back inside if there's one wandering around out here."

Giorno shook his head. "No, I think it's fine. Probably will be fine. I doubt anything wild would be on the property," he said and kept walking toward the sound of the dog.

Mista looked around and kept up with him. As they came around the area close to the encampment, Giorno saw Kars throwing a stick for a dog. He looked up as they walked into the area.

"He just kind of started hanging around," he explained.

Giorno smiled and was surprised when the dog ran to him with the stick. He chuckled a bit as he took the stick from the dog and tossed it for him again. Giorno liked all animals and plants so he was happy to play with the friendly mutt.

"I named him Aja," Kars said as he watched Giorno throw the stick a few times for him. "He's a good dog."

"Aja," Giorno said and the dog wagged its tail happily as though it already recognized his name when it was spoken. He was a brown dog with a long bushy tail and floppy ears. There was no real sign of what breed he might have been, but he was about knee high on Giorno and Mista. He looked to be healthy and happy.

Mista was seemingly a little stand offish about the dog but once Giorno started petting him, he came around and started to pet Aja as well. Giorno smiled at him as the dog flopped on the ground and rolled to his back for belly rubs. Mista chuckled a little and rubbed his belly.

"I never had dogs growing up," Mista said as he knelt and played with the dog some more.

"I love all sorts of animals. We never could have any when I was growing up, my step-dad didn't care for animals very much," Giorno said as he rubbed Aja's head fondly.

Kars smiled at them. "A dog around will keep unwanted guests away, too," he said and nodded.

Giorno smiled at him and stood up. "I don't know why anyone would cause any trouble around here; there's no one here involved in anything untoward."

Santana came walking up from the other direction with Esidisi and Wamuu. Giorno waved at them as they approached. They had built a nice little encampment with lean-tos and a fire pit. They were up against the wall of one of the out buildings furthest from the main building. They had pulled a couple of large logs to use as seats.

"Hi, guys," Giorno said with a grin to them. "I was just meeting Aja," he said and watched as all three of the men took a seat around the pit.

"He's pretty smart," Wamuu said as he put down his bag. It looked like they had been on a supply run, as they all had grocery bags. They each carried two of the reusable grocery bags that they went to buy supplies with.

"Can you take care of him?" Giorno asked, wondering if they could afford to get dog food for him.

"Yeah, we're doing yardwork in the area for a decent amount of money, then come winter, we can do snow removal," Esidisi said and pulled out a bag of dogfood from his bag. They had a pan of water already set out, and he poured food in another pan. Aja ran over when he whistled and started eating heartily.

Mista stood up from where he'd been kneeling to play with the dog. He turned to Giorno. "We should get back, it's starting to get dark."

Giorno nodded. "I suppose you're right," he agreed. "Good night, guys," he told the four men. "Good night, Aja," he said and waved at the dog.

Mista smiled at him as they went back up to the house. Once again, Giorno felt that same feeling of connection with Mista that he didn't feel with anyone else. He wanted to be with him, and he was happy when he thought of him. He wasn't sure how to deal with the feelings that he had, and he was at the best, confused. He felt strong emotions toward him, but he had yet to identify what they were. He just knew that over the weeks he'd been there, he wanted to stay by him. He was calming and made Giorno feel good. How could he say anything, though?

He was shaken out of his thoughts as they got to the house. He supposed it was a thought for another day.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

A few days later, Mista was wrestling with his own emotions and what to do with them. They had the class together, and at the end, as usual, Giorno took off to go sit in the middle area of the school. He went before some of the other students, and Mista was not in any hurry so he gathered his things a little slowly. He heard a conversation nearby.

"What's his deal anyway?" a dark-haired boy said.

"The blond boy with the hoodie?" another dark-haired boy said.

"Yeah, he wears that hoodie no matter how hot it is. I think he's hiding something," the first boy said with a frown.

"Maybe he's a drug user and has track marks," the second supplied. Mista frowned, knowing of course that that was untrue.

"But he shows up every class, and he answers when he's called on," a third one said.

"He doesn't talk to anyone either," the first one said. "He just does his thing in class and gets out of here as quickly as he can. I don't know what his problem is, but he's annoying."

Mista frowned and wondered why Giorno's quiet ways would bother anyone. "Why does it bother you, anyway?" the third person said, a boy with sandy blond hair.

"Just, guys like that, they're hiding something," the first one said.

Mista gathered his things and got up because if he waited any longer, he was going to look like he was eavesdropping on their conversation. He walked out of the room and was thoughtful. What was he hiding? He didn't know what it was, but it was something very personal. He headed out of the building and came out into the center area. He'd found out everyone called it "the park" because of how it was set up like a miniature park in the center of the buildings. He was behind where Giorno was sitting on one of the benches. There was no one else around.

Giorno was sitting with his sleeve pushed up his arm, staring at his forearm for some reason. Mista walked quietly, not sneaking exactly, but not making any extra noise. He came up beside him and Giorno jumped, quickly pushing his sleeve down.

"Mista," he said as he glanced at him. "I didn't see you there."

"Sorry, I just came over after class let out. I was heading down to the library, and I was wondering if you wanted to come with me," he said and tried to look like he hadn't seen him doing anything unusual.

"Yeah, sounds good," he said and stood up, picking up his backpack and smiling at him.

They went to the library and spent the rest of their afternoon studying for their various classes. They passed the time in silence. There were a few people in and out of library over the next few hours as they sat there and worked. Mista mused, however, on what to do about Giorno. He didn't know what else he could do other than what he had already. He was confused and wondered what to do about it.

At close to five, they both put away their books and headed out to meet Bruno and Fugo to head home.

"How are you guys?" Bruno asked as they approached the car.

"Fine," Giorno said and gave him a small smile. He got in the car and shut the door.

Mista stared at the door and Bruno put a hand on his shoulder, surprising him. "What?" he asked.

"You're never going to get anywhere if you don't speak up," Bruno said quietly. "You have to take a chance and say something.

"I don't know what you mean," Mista started, but Fugo came up just then.

Bruno and Fugo got into the car and Mista followed suit to get into the back seat. He found Giorno was reading one of his books for class as he sat there. Speak up? What did he mean by that? He swallowed and wondered exactly what he was going to do now.

Once they got home, they went through the regular routine they had at night. Mista was distant from the conversations that happened during dinner. He was thinking still on what Bruno had said and also what he wanted to do. There were so many things going on in his head. He didn't know exactly what to do about his feelings because he didn't understand them entirely.

"Are you coming on my walk?" Giorno asked him after they were done with dinner.

"Of course," Mista said and stood up, perhaps a little too fast because he nearly knocked his chair over.

They went out and took care of the ducks first, then walked down the path that was being worn in the grass from Giorno walking that way every night. The air smelled of fall leaves, and they crunched underfoot as they walked. The air was growing crisper at night and the feel of the coming winter season was starting to override the heat of the passing summer. As twilight set in, they headed back toward the house. They were halfway back when Giorno made a surprised noise.

"What is it?" Mista asked, looking around.

"I saw something," Giorno said and looked into the trees.

"What did you see?" Mista asked as he looked around to see if he could see anything.

Giorno looked around. "I swear I saw a monkey," he said finally.

Mista blinked in surprise. "A monkey?"

"A monkey," Giorno confirmed, still watching the trees. "I don't think I was seeing things."

As he turned toward the house, Mista shook his head. "Well, we're not going to see anything in the dark," he said and turned back to Giorno. "We can come out in the morning and see what we can see in morning.

"Yeah," Giorno said and headed back toward the house.

Once back inside, they had some time before bed so everyone sat down in the living room to watch a movie. Mista sat next to Giorno and didn't pay any attention to the movie at all. He was thinking more and more about the things that he could do and say to make things move forward. He had to decide if what he was feeling was something true. As the movie came to an end, he decided that he was going to do exactly what Bruno suggested. He was going to speak up.

After the movie, everyone headed to bed and Giorno came with him up to his room. He sat on the bed and wondered if it was the right time to push Giorno again. He'd been trying to show him how much he wanted to be around him, and he'd been trying to show his interest, but he didn't think Giorno was picking up on it. Maybe he was being too subtle. So, tonight he was going to see if he'd take the next step or not. He looked up as Giorno came in, his hoodie still unzipped from changing for bed.

"You know, I like you," Mista said with a glance over at him. Might as well be in for everything.

Giorno looked up and blinked. "Well, I like you too," he said and Mista thought his face colored a bit.

"I mean more than just as a friend," Mista continued, standing up and moving toward him.

Now, Giorno's face did redden and his breath caught. "Oh," he whispered and looked at him.

"I've been trying to show it, but I figured I needed to be clear with you," Mista said as he put both hands on the outside of Giorno's wrists lightly.

Giorno blinked and stared at Mista's hands and then looked at his face. His eyes were wide and Mista was struck by the vulnerability that was in that face. He was so very close now. "I don't know how you feel, but I needed to get out my own feelings finally. I think I understand them now."

"I kinda like you, too," Giorno said and stared into his eyes.

"Is this too much?" Mista asked and ran his hands up to rest on Giorno's shoulders. "I can go sleep on the couch if this is too much right now."

He shook his head. "No, don't. I like sleeping next to you," Giorno said with a slight smile. He moved his hands to touch Mista's on his shoulders.

"So, what does this mean? We both like each other." Mista's mouth had gone dry a bit as he kept in contact with Giorno's body.

"What do you usually do now?" Giorno asked, clenching his hands on Mista's as they stood in silence for a moment.

Mista smiled, his face softening even more than it already was. "Well, I could ask you to go on a date with me, or we could just get into bed for the night and be next to each other, whatever you want."

Giorno nodded. "Both sound nice."

"Then let's not overthink things," Mista said and moved his hands off Giorno's shoulders to grasp his hand in his. He pulled him toward the bed and sat down.

Moving his hands to Mista's shoulders now, Giorno smiled a little. "I guess I could take this off tonight."

Mista's eyes widened as he watched as Giorno let the hoodie fall off his shoulders and he pulled it off. When he put it down on the chair beside the bed, Mista realized what he was hiding from everyone and why he refused to remove his hoodie. Down the inside of both his forearms were scars of various ages, some fresher than others. It was obviously self-inflicted and something Giorno kept secret from most people. Giorno stood there, waiting for something it seemed, until Mista reached out and ran a hand down one of his forearms and smiled.

"Thank you," he said softly.

Giorno looked up, surprise coloring his features. "For what?"

"For trusting me." Mista took one of Giorno's hands and gently lifted it to his lips, leaving a light kiss on the knuckles.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Bruno headed down to the bar again. This time, he was going to see if he couldn't run into Leone again. He'd been on his mind the last few days, and he wanted to see if he was still going down to the bar on a regular basis and passing out in front of it. He kind of hoped that he'd stopped that part of the routine.

He got to the bar just as the sun was setting. It was a slow night, and as expected, Leone was sitting at the end of the bar already when he got there. He approached and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Huh?" he said and turned to stare at Bruno. "Oh, it's you."

"Yeah, wanted to see if you wanted someone to drink with rather than alone tonight," Bruno said with a small smile.

Leone returned the smile and nodded. "Sure, if you want."

Bruno sat down beside him and ordered himself a drink. He didn't intend to get drunk, but he figured it would be weird if he didn't have a drink in front of him. He glanced over at Leone.

"So, what sort of music are you into?" he asked as he sipped his drink slowly.

Leone turned his head toward Bruno and smiled. "What is this, a date?"

Bruno shrugged. "Whatever you wanna call it."

"Um, well classical, actually. Especially Claudio Monteverdi," he said and looked at his drink thoughtfully.

"Classical?" Bruno said as he nodded. "I like jazz. Miles Davis is my favorite."

"Jazz is cool," Leone said with a smile. "I didn't peg you for a jazz person."

"Oh?" Bruno said and nodded. "I didn't peg you as a classical person either."

"Well, we're both full of surprises," Leone said as he finished his drink and ordered another. He was starting to look tipsy.

They chatted another hour about nothing. Then Leone asked Bruno what he did for a living.

"Right now, I'm going to school," Bruno answered as he finished his second drink. He thought Leone was on his fifth or sixth drink and looking pretty well gone. "That's why I live with Fugo at the house there, cheaper to rent a room than it is to rent an apartment."

Leone was quiet for a minute as though he was thinking. "I used to be a cop."

"Used to be?" Bruno asked with a tilt of his head.

"I had to leave after I watched my partner die in front of me. He got shot in the line of duty, and things just went to hell for me from there," he said with a deep sigh, swirling the liquid in his glass thoughtfully.

"Is that why you drink yourself into a stupor?" Bruno figured that Leone was drunk enough to be past the point of lying or hiding the truth.

He snorted. "I drink to forget how worthless I am now."

"Why do you say that?" Bruno asked, genuinely curious.

"I don't know how to explain it. Just since my partner died, things have been bad for me. I cant concentrate on anything and there are just too many things in my head. I don't know how to deal with it and the only thing to do is drown it," Leone said with a sigh.

They were both silent for a few moments. Finally, Bruno spoke up again. "I don't think you're worthless, as everyone has worth. I think you just need a little more help to get through it."

Leone looked at him and smiled. "So, enough about me. Tell me about that crazy household you live in. I didn't get to see much of it more than a few things."

Bruno smiled and sipped his drink. "Well, let's see. There's Fugo; he owns the place and is fixing it up to rent out the outbuildings. Then Narancia is his partner. Narancia is a cross-dresser with a penchant for old vintage dresses. They're both about my age, so mid-twenties. Then the two young ones, we have Mista who is a nineteen-year-old college student who has some skill at being handy. Giorno is the blond-haired one you met and he's a recent addition. He was in an abusive home and left to come stay with us. Right now, he and Mista are dancing around being interested in each other. We've got a resident in one of the out buildings and another one almost ready for someone to move into."

Leone shook his head. "Sounds like quite a crew of colorful individuals."

"It is certainly an interesting place to live," Bruno said with a smirk.

"I live alone right now, but I don't know how long I'll be able to afford the place I'm at," Leone said with a sad smile.

Bruno nodded as he sipped his drink again. "Well, if you ever need a place to stay, you know where you can come."

Leone smiled and downed his drink. "I appreciate it," he said with a look over at him.

They sat in silence for a while until Leone spoke up again. "So, you're going to school, too, huh?" he asked.

Bruno nodded. "Aquaculture," he said with a smirk.

"What the hell is aquaculture?" Leone said with a wrinkled brow.

Bruno shook his head. "Raising plants and animals that are in the water for food. So, farming and fisheries, that sort of thing. Like agriculture, only in the water," he explained as he pushed his empty glad back. He told the bartender no when he asked if he wanted another.

"Aren't you in the wrong part of the country for that kind of thing?" Leone asked with a smirk.

"I'm planning to move to the coast, probably down at the gulf, and work there," he said and looked at him. "My father was from the gulf coast of Texas. That's where I grew up for part of my life."

"Really? You don't have an accent," Leone said, finishing his drink.

"Not everyone down there does," Bruno stated. He heard that all the time when people found out he was from Texas. People always thought the accent came with the territory. Granted, he used to have a touch of an accent, but since he'd been in Missouri, even that had faded.

After another silence, Bruno turned toward Leone again. "Why don't we go do something next weekend rather than sitting here drinking?"

Leone blinked in surprise and looked at Bruno. "Are you asking me on a date?"

"I thought we were having one already," Bruno pointed out with a grin.

"I guess you're right." Leone gave him a wry smile. "Do you usually pick up guys in bars?"

Bruno snorted lightly. "You're the first."


	7. Chapter 7

"Do you want to go to the fall festival that is being held by the school?" Mista asked one afternoon as they were waiting for Bruno to take them home. They were sitting in the Park and enjoying the cooler temperatures this day.

Giorno felt the blood rush to his cheeks and he smiled. "Yeah, that would be fun."

"Cool, it's this weekend. It isn't a very big festival, but it looks like it could be something nice to go to," Mista explained as they got up to go to meet Bruno and Fugo.

Bruno and Fugo had beaten them to the car and were waiting already. Mista waved as they got nearer to them. Since they'd talked, Mista had been a little more obvious with his affections, like taking Giorno's hand now and then.

"Bruno, would you be able to bring us to the fall festival this weekend?" Mista asked as they got to the car.

Bruno nodded. "Sure, maybe I can invite Leone to come too. I thought about asking him to do something besides sitting and drinking at the bar on a Saturday night," he said with a smile as everyone climbed into the car to head home.

By the time they were ready to go on Saturday, Giorno was excited and anticipating his first date out in public with Mista. The fact that Leone and Bruno were going too was even better. Both Mista and Giorno were wearing jeans and t-shirts, though of course, Giorno wore his hoodie as usual. He still hadn't revealed his arms to anyone else in the house. Mista knew it was just a matter of time before he got around to doing it, though.

"Ready?" Bruno asked as he came down the stairs wearing a loose top and a pair of jeans.

Mista and Giorno were both sitting on the sofa awaiting him. "Yup," Mista said as he got up. "Are we picking up Leone on the way?"

"Sure are," Bruno said with a smile. "Let's not delay!"

Mista and Giorno piled into the backseat so Leone could sit in the front by Bruno. The ride to his place was quiet, mostly because Giorno didn't know what to say to Mista. He was wondering what exactly one said on a date since he'd never had one.

Leone was waiting outside for them as they pulled up and got in the car and glanced in the back. His face was serious looking. "Hello," he said and faced front again.

Bruno snorted and looked at him. "You're going to have to loosen up at a fall festival. It's about having fun, remember?"

"I know, I just have never been to one," Leone admitted, turning quiet the rest of the trip.

The school had a large practice field for athletics and had filled it with the fall festival stuff that was brought in. It was amazing to see something that looked like a traveling carnival set it so quickly since it hadn't been there the day before. They parked and got out of the car. Leone and Bruno stood at the hood of the car for a minute and looked over at the Ferris wheel that had been set up.

"I'll call you when we're ready, but for now, meet at the Ferris wheel at about ten?" Bruno said as he looked at his phone.

"Sounds like a plan," Mista said with a grin as he reached out to take Giorno's hand.

Giorno felt his cheeks heat up as he took his hand and walked toward the festival with him. Bruno and Leone stayed at the car talking for a little while longer. Mista seemed to be in a hurry to get to the festival and see what was there.

"So, what do we do first?" Mista asked as they came into the entrance.

"Um…play some games they have set up?" Giorno asked.

They found all sorts of game booths set up including one where you threw darts at balloons. Mista smirked and told Giorno he could do that one easily. Giorno watched as he bought the six shots and proceeded to nail all six of the balloons that were the smallest of the targets.

"You win a prize!" the booth barker said and point to the arch over him where there were stuffed animals hanging.

"What do you like?" Mista asked with a smirk.

Giorno looked and didn't know what to choose until he spotted it. "There! The octopus!"

The guy at the booth hooked it down and gave it to Mista. Mista turned and handed it to Giorno with a grin. "I know it's cliché, but this is for you."

Giorno flushed bright red in the dwindling twilight. He covered his face with the stuffed octopus as they walked away. They saw a food cart and decided that food would be a good idea. It looked like they were selling hand held Italian foods like pizza and cannoli.

"That looks like a good place!" Giorno said with a grin as they came up.

"Hello folks!" the man behind the cart said with a grin. "I'm Tonio Trussardi, and this is my little piece of Trattoria Trussardi, my restaurant in St. Louis!"

Both Mista and Giorno picked out something to eat. "It smells wonderful!" Mista said as he handed over their food.

Tonio smiled and thanked them. "Oh, there's my assistant!" he said as another man who looked about their age came back to the cart. "Okuyasu, did you find some fun things to do while on your break?"

"Yeah, boss. I played a couple games, didn't win anything," Okuyasu said as he stepped behind the cart and put on an apron.

"This food is amazing," Giorno said as he finished his piece of pizza. "I've never tasted something as simple as pizza that tasted so good!"

"Thank you, that was Okuyasu's work, actually," Tonio said proudly.

"I'm training to be a full chef at the Trattoria Trussardi," Okuyasu said with a grin.

Just as they were about to turn and leave, Giorno recognized Mikitaka walking toward them. "Mikitaka!" he said out loud, getting the blond's attention.

"Oh, Giorno, right?" Mikitaka said as he approached. "How are you?"

"Fine, just having a bite to eat," he said with a grin as Mista finished off his piece of pizza.

He dumped the paper plate into the trash bin wiped his hands together. Giorno smiled as Mista took his hand. Mikitaka tilted his head to the side and looked at them curiously for a minute before he turned and walked back the way he'd come. Giorno and Mista looked after him with a curious look. Just as he was about to turn the corner, there was the sound of a wailing ambulance in the distance. They saw him crouch suddenly and cover both his ears. Giorno walked over to him and found him muttering to himself.

"Are you okay?" Giorno asked as he knelt in front of him.

Mikitaka removed his hands slowly as the sounds of the ambulance faded. "I'm allergic to sirens," he said with a very serious look on his face.

Giorno blinked and stood up with him as he stood and then walked off again. Mista stood beside him and shook his head.

"He's a weird one," he muttered and shook his head.

"Yeah," Giorno said and looked down and saw that people were gathering near one of the stages. "Hey, there's something going on there, let's go see."

Mista nodded and they headed toward the stage. As they were walking by a couple people standing to the side they heard them speak up.

"Walking parking meters…" they heard. Giorno looked over to see two students he knew from class, Sale and Zucchero. Both were looking like they were on something as they watched Mista and Giorno walking by them.

Giorno shook his head and led Mista toward the area where people were gathering for a concert. He wasn't sure if it was a scheduled thing or if someone just decided to sing. They came into the area to see Narancia and Fugo standing a little ways away from everyone else. Narancia was wearing one of his halter dresses and clinging close to Fugo.

"I didn't think you guys would come," Giorno said as they came closer to them.

"I can come out if someone is with me when I'm out in public," Narancia said with a smile.

Fugo nodded and squeezed his shoulders. "Yeah, and this seemed like a nice thing to come listen to local singers like Trish Una."

Mista tugged on Giorno's hand toward the front. "Let's get a better view," he said as he pulled him away.

"Bye, guys," Giorno said as he waved at Narancia and Fugo who were staying by the fence and away from the crowd.

They stood in the middle of the crowd and waited for the music to start. A girl with pink hair cut short and a short skirt with a halter top came out onto the stage and started singing. She went through a few songs, some the crowd sang with her on, and others that everyone just listened. At the end of the set, everyone cheered for her and she bowed in thanks. Once she was done, the crowd dispersed, and Giorno noticed that Narancia and Fugo were already gone.

Mista and Giorno walked around and saw more food vendors from local places, more games where there were raffles going on by local businesses, and they ran into Leone and Bruno once along the way. As the night deepened, the fireworks started going off above them.

They sat down on a bench to watch as the fireworks began over them. A particularly loud one popped and Giorno jumped close to Mista. Mista smirked and put an arm around him for a moment before leaning over to speak in his ear.

"Can I kiss you under the fireworks since we're having a cliché date?" Mista asked, setting Giorno's cheeks to heat up.

"Yeah," he said as he leaned into Mista.

The bench they'd chosen was good to see the fireworks above them, but it was situated a little off the way from the rest of the people. Mista leaned closer and pressed his lips against Giorno's very softly, waiting for him to respond to it. Giorno leaned into it, parting his lips just a bit. Mista took the invitation and licked at him for a second before he leaned into him and delved into his mouth in earnest. Giorno grabbed him around the shoulder and pressed closer and closer to him.

They parted, both panting a little. Mista swallowed and smiled at him. "How about we take things further when we get home?" he said gently.

Giorno's face heated again. "Yeah, I'd like that," he told him.

Mista leaned in and kissed him again, beginning as a slow thing to becoming a more insistent tangle of tongues and breath. Just as Mista ran his hands down Giorno's back, his phone began going off. He groaned and muttered "That's Bruno…"

He pulled the phone out of his pocket, reluctantly leaning back from Giorno.

"Hey, Bruno," he answered. "Yeah, we'll meet you at the Ferris wheel. Take one ride all together and then head home."

Mista put away his phone and stood up. He reached his hand out for Giorno's. Giorno smiled and took it, octopus clutched in his other arm as they went to the Ferris wheel. They saw Bruno and Leone waiting there. They were soon all on the ride together. When the wheel stopped at the very top, Mista turned and grabbed Giorno again and kissed him. They barely parted when the wheel began to move again, allowing the next person to see them now.

Once they were done, everyone headed back to the car. Once inside, Giorno found his hand clutched by Mista as they sat in silence all the way back to the house.

"I'll drop you off first, I think we're going for a late night dinner," Bruno said as they pulled into the place.

"Alright, good night, Leone," Mista said as he scrambled out of the car and came around to wait for Giorno to get out of the car. When he got out, Mista took his hand and walked with him to the door.

Giorno was more than ready to continue where they left off when they got home. As soon as Bruno pulled away, Mista was on him, kissing his neck and throat, barely getting into the house. Giorno didn't know what to do, really, so he just went along with whatever Mista was doing.

"We should go upstairs," Mista breathed out as he held Giorno up against the back of the front door. Giorno dropped the octopus as he occupied both of them in Mista's hair during another frantic kiss between them.

Giorno just nodded and was pulled by the hand up the stairs. It was late, so Narancia and Fugo would be in bed already. As they passed their room, the door was closed for the night. Once inside their room, once again, Mista pushed him up against the back of the door. Giorno gasped as he felt Mista grind against his leg.

Mista's hand slid down the front of his pants and squeezed him. Giorno let out a sound that surprised him and bit down on his lip.

"You want to continue?" Mista asked, nuzzling into his neck and sucking a biting kiss on him.

"Uh, yeah, yeah," Giorno murmured, feeling so many things that he didn't want it to stop.

"I mean, I don't want to pressure you into anything…" Mista said, taking a moment to suck lightly on his collarbone as he unzipped his hoodie.

Giorno shook his head. "No, I want this, too," he whispered as he let the hoodie fall off his shoulders and down his arms.

"Good, because I really, really don't want to stop yet," Mista breathed into his ear.

Mista leaned back and shucked his t-shirt, throwing it to the side. He reached down and grabbed Giorno's t-shirt by the bottom and pulled it up and over his head slowly. Over the shoulder it went, as Mista dove down and began sucking on one dusky colored nipple, tonguing it until Giorno was clutching his back hard enough to feel his nails.

"Hmm, seems that's sensitive," Mista murmured against his skin, moving to lave his tongue over the other nipple slowly until again Giorno grasped him. "But let's go over to the bed before we end up on the floor."

Giorno just nodded, all these new sensations flooding him at the same time and rushing to his head as they tried to walk to the bed without letting go of each other. It was awkward, and they stopped several times when they nearly fell over to giggle at their impatience. Finally, Mista shoved Giorno back onto the bed where he landed with a soft "oof" and went back to kissing a trail down the middle of his body to the top of his jeans. Mista paused and went to work undoing the jeans quickly, slipping them down off Giorno's slender hips along with his boxer shorts underneath them. Giorno for a second turned bright red, realizing that he was now naked in front of Mista for the first time. He hid his face in his hands as Mista ran his hands over his hips and thighs while he watched.

"Don't be shy," Mista muttered and took Giorno in hand, slowly stroking him as he writhed under him. "I want to see all of you."

"That's so embarrassing," Giorno said muffled by his hands as he still covered his face.

Mista leaned up and kissed his lips gently before deepening it and lazily sliding his hand up and down Giorno as he devoured his mouth. Giorno moaned into his mouth as Mista felt him leaking copious amounts of fluid onto his hand. Mista smiled and took a moment to stand up and slip out of his own jeans before climbing up on the bed beside Giorno and resuming kissing his neck. Giorno turned toward him, pulling his legs up on the bed and nuzzling into his chest.

"We don't have to go all the way if you just want to, you know, just do this," Mista said as he ran his hand over Giorno's soft curls on the top of his head.

Giorno smiled, reaching out and cupping Mista's face. "No, I said we could do it. I want to be with you," he whispered and kissed him gently.

Mista kissed him back, this time turning it into a deep, passionate kiss as he slid his hand down and stroked him a few times. "Here, I have what we need," Mista said and turned toward the side table.

"You do?" Giorno said, looking over as he pulled out a packet of something.

"Yeah, I don't have any condoms though," he said as he looked through the drawer. "So you wanna go on without?"

Giorno nodded. "I trust you."

Mista smiled and ripped the packet open with his teeth, squeezing some of the slick gel onto his fingers. He moved Giorno's leg and slid his index finger slowly into him. Giorno wriggled under the new sensation and wasn't sure what to think about it. It felt different, but not bad.

"Okay?" Mista asked as he worked his finger back and forth before sliding a second in with the first.

Giorno did gasp at that as he arched a little. His breath caught, and he bit his lip a little. Mista brushed a hand over him in the front, slowly massaging him from the inside as he worked him open. He then crooked his fingers and began searching for the small spongey spot… There, he thought as Giorno let out a louder moan and arched his back a little.

Giorno had no idea what Mista was doing but it went from feeling weird into feeling really good. He had been nervous about doing this even if he told Mista he was ready for it. Who was ever really ready for this? He had quickly forgotten his embarrassment of being nude as he let the sensations take over his body. He also wondered how Mista knew all about this…

Mista thought he'd stretched him enough, and to be honest, he was getting more than a little impatient to move ahead. He paused, pulling his fingers out and moving Giorno up onto the bed further than he already was. He maneuvered himself between his legs and leaned over to kiss him once again. He reached down and slid his still slick fingers back inside him, plunging the in and out with a little more vigor than before to gauge Giorno's reactions.

Giorno felt strange but it was new and not bad at all. He huffed a breath and grabbed onto Mista's shoulders as he used his fingers to great effect. Mista moved his hand and set both of them by Giorno's head, brushing up against him and nudging at his entrance.

"If it hurts or anything, tell me, I'll stop," he said as he kneeled up and grabbed the lube packet to coat himself with it.

He then pushed Giorno's legs back a little further and slid himself slowly into place. He felt Giorno tense and stopped. "You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, fine, go on," Giorno said with a face twisted somewhere in between pain and pleasure.

Mista nodded and pressed the rest of the way into him, slowly and steadily. Giorno gasped as he got himself seated fully. He panted for a moment and stared down at the disheveled mess he'd made of Giorno in such a short amount of time. He had thrown one hand over his face and was blushing hard. Mista reached over and grabbed his hand, pulling it off his face with a smile as he leaned over and kissed him again. He took the moment to pull out and push in again, causing Giorno to arch up against him. He held his breath as he resisted the urge to just pound into him as hard as he could. He had to be easy with him, especially at first.

Giorno whimpered and swallowed hard. "Go…move…" he said finally.

Mista didn't have to hear those words twice as he began a slow and steady rhythm as he thrust into him. He pushed Giorno's legs back further, nearly doubling him up as he began to get to a faster pace, sliding against Giorno's prostate at just the right angle to set him to moaning. Giorno bit down on his bent index finger on his fist to stifle the sounds he was making. He didn't want to wake up Narancia and Fugo.

Slowing, Mista decided to alter their position and pulled out long enough to flip Giorno to his belly and plunge back down into him from behind.

The stimulation was almost too much for Giorno as he buried his face now in the covers on the bed, hands fisting and clutching them tightly. Mista held to his hips as he slammed into him harder than he had before, letting his instinct take over just a little more. He leaned over and reached underneath Giorno to stroke him with his thrusts into his body. He could feel him already starting to tense and knew it wouldn't be long for him. He knew that he himself wasn't that far away from going over the edge either. All the work up to this had made him more than ready to get to the finish.

"Ah, I'm close!" Giorno gasped out suddenly, tears collecting in his eyes from trying to hold back.

"Me too," Mista huffed as he stroked Giorno firmly with one hand while he leaned over him.

Giorno couldn't hold on any longer as he bit down on his finger again, going over with a low moan as Mista tried to hold off himself. He wasn't able to do so for much longer as Giorno's body clenched around him and was the final thing that led him to fall down the pleasurable crest. He thrust a few times through it and then fell to the side, pulling Giorno over and away from the wet spot on the bed.

"Are you okay?" Mista asked, running a hand over Giorno's now disheveled blond curls.

"Yeah," Giorno huffed as he got his breath back to normal once more.

"Here, I'll get something to clean up with," Mista said and got up, going over and picking up one of their t-shirts. He came back and carefully wiped first Giorno down, then himself and tossed it back on the floor.

"You seemed to enjoy it?" Mista asked as he held Giorno from the back and grabbed the messed up covers with one hand.

"It was good," Giorno said and Mista propped himself up to see he was blushing again. He smiled and leaned down to nibble on his ear. Giorno giggled and slapped at his head with one hand.

"You have a lot of body hair…" Giorno said with a smirk as he stroked one of Mista's hands thoughtfully.

Mista snorted and nuzzled into the back of Giorno's neck. "Is that a problem?"

Giorno smiled and shook his head. Mista was quiet for a minute before he spoke up again. "Do you think I smell weird?"

"No, you smell like you," Giorno said, feeling his cheeks heat again. "I like the way you smell."

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Giorno was siting in the living room the next morning when there was a knock at the door. He got up and found that Formaggio had come by again to visit with Risotto.

"Hey, how are you?" Giorno asked him as he let him in.

"Pretty well," Formaggio said with a grin. "How is everyone here?"

"Not too bad," Giorno told him as he sat back down on the sofa.

Formaggio hesitated a moment then spoke up again. "So, this sounds weird, but I swear I saw something that looked like Gollum crossing the road a few nights ago when I was here."

Giorno looked at him with a tilt of his head. "That's odd, but we have been seeing some strange things around here."

"I better go see how Risotto is doing today, maybe I can get him to come up for a while tonight," Formaggio said as he headed down the basement stairs.

Giorno went into the kitchen to fix himself some tea. He looked up as Bruno came back down from upstairs. He'd been out all night the night before and had just come home this morning after spending the night with Leone at his place. He was looking a little on the tired side, but then so was Giorno. Mista was still in bed actually. He looked up to see Narancia and Fugo coming down the stairs. Everyone got settled around the table with their morning tea. They all looked up when they heard the basement door open and close.

"Risotto," Bruno said as he stood up and went over to guide him to have a seat. "Sit down and I'll get you a cup of tea," he told him.

Formaggio came around and sat down beside him. Risotto looked much better, now without most of the bandages on him. He was still the type that exuded an intimidating aura, but Narancia didn't seem to be bothered by him as much as he was.

"Are you feeling better?" Bruno asked as he set down tea for Risotto.

"Much," he said simply as he took the tea and sipped it.

Just as they were sitting in an uncomfortable silence, someone knocked on the door. Bruno got up and answered it. When he opened it, there was a nearly bald man that looked really nervous standing there.

"Can I help you?" Bruno asked, curious.

"Um, yeah, my name is Masazo Kinoto. Um, I wanted to see if you've seen a monkey?" he asked as he wrung his hands together.

Bruno blinked and looked over at the table. "So, has anyone seen a monkey?"

Giorno got up and walked over toward the door. "I thought I saw one in the trees outside on one of my walks…"

"Oh, what a relief," Kinoto said with a sigh. "I've been looking around for days to try and find him. His name is CT and I bought him when I was drunk one night."

"You bought a monkey while drunk?" Giorno asked with a frown. "And you let it escape?"

"He is really good at getting his cage open," Kinoto said softly. "I think I might find a sanctuary to send him to once I find him again…"

Bruno nodded. "I think that's a good idea."

"Do you mind if I look around outside and see if I can find him?" he asked.

Bruno nodded. "Of course, good luck finding him."

Kinoto bowed a little and turned and headed out onto the property. Bruno watched him go and shook his head as he shut the door. He turned back to those in the dining room table.

"This is certainly a busy place this weekend…" Bruno muttered as he sat down at the table to finish his tea.

Fugo smirked as he looked up at Bruno. "Next weekend will be busy too. I've got the second outbuilding ready and the new tenants will be here next weekend."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Mirror's Edge

The next weekend they had a big fall BBQ planned and invited everyone to it, including their new tenants. The newest residents were a pair of women and one man. To Giorno's surprise, it was a polyamorous group. Jolyne Cujoh had her two partners, Narciso Anasui and Ermes Costello, or Hermes as she was known. Anasui was a tall man with pink hair who enjoyed taking things apart. Hermes was a tall woman with an athletic build and dark hair. Jolyne herself was an athletic looking woman with black hair she wore in two buns with blonde bangs and a blonde braid that went down the back of her neck.

Giorno was helping get things ready for the evening. Mista was already outside helping with the BBQ pit. He was gathering together the various things to go out on the grill. They were having hamburgers, hot dogs, bratwursts, and grilled veggies. Bruno was putting together the foil packages with the veggies in them to go on.

"So, how are things with Leone? Is he coming tonight?" Giorno asked as they gathered things together.

Bruno smiled. "Well, I spent the night with him at his place the other night after the festival, so I'd say it went well. I understand you and Mista are getting on pretty well," he said as he folded another packet of foil.

Giorno felt the blood rush to his face. "Yeah. I've never liked someone before, and this is all very new to me," Giorno said as he got the platter with the meats on it ready.

"New but not bad, I hope?" Bruno asked as they headed out of the house to take the stuff out.

"Not bad," Giorno confirmed as they stepped outside.

Fugo was heading up the cooking on the grill and took everything that they brought out. The guys from the encampment were there already, having pulled up some logs for everyone to sit on. Mikitaka was standing to the side watching everyone.

Fugo looked at Giorno. "You and Mista should go introduce yourselves to the new tenants, Jolyne and her partners. I'm sure they'd be interested in knowing the others that live here," he told him with a smile.

Mista, who was standing beside Fugo, reached out and grabbed Giorno's hand to lead him over where the two women and man stood grouped together. Jolyne looked over at them as they approached.

"Um, hello," Giorno said with a smile as they came up. "I'm Giorno, and this is Mista. We live up in the main house," he said with a gentle smile.

"Oh, nice to meet you. I'm Jolyne Cujoh, and this is Hermes and Anasui," she said, gesturing to the other woman and the man that stood with her.

"Do you like the place so far?" Giorno asked, unsure of what to talk about with them.

"It seems very nice," Hermes said as she looked around. "Who are those guys?" she asked, gesturing to the four guys from the encampment.

"Oh, they have an encampment here on the property. They do running and stuff like that," Mista said with a grin.

Hermes nodded, going over to where Kars and the others were sitting. "Yo, you guys go running around here?" she asked.

"Yes, every day," Kars answered as he nodded at her. "You are welcome to join us," he told her with a gesture to sit down. "Both now and for our morning runs."

Hermes sat down and shook hands with the guys as they each introduced themselves to her. Mista squeezed Giorno's hand and looked at him. "Look, Leone got here," he said as they watched the slender, white haired man come up from the driveway. "I wonder if Bruno will get him to stay the night."

"Are they together?" Jolyne asked with a smile as she watched where Giorno and Mista were watching.

"They're trying to be together, I think," Mista said as he watched Bruno turn and talk to him when he came up. "Bruno certainly lights up when he's around…"

Fugo called out and everyone came over toward the grill where he was handing out paper plates and encouraging people to pick what they wanted. There were two tables set up nearby where the food was laid out along with the buns for the hotdogs and burgers. There were some 2 liter sodas sitting there with plastic cups in stacks.

Everyone got something to eat, and Giorno noticed Narancia had come out but was staying close to Fugo by the grill. "So, you go to Vento Aureo?" Jolyne asked Giorno as he stood beside her.

"Oh, yes," Giorno said. "I'm a biology major."

"Really? My father works out there as a professor," she said as she ate her food.

"Your father is Jotaro Kujo?" Giorno asked as he looked at her with surprise.

She nodded. "Yeah, that's him. He's a little embarrassed by the fact that I have two partners, but he'll get over it one of these days."

"Small world," Mista said as they stood there and chatted a few minutes about the school and what they took classes in this year.

Mista looked to see Mikitaka standing by himself eating slowly. "Hey, Mikitaka, come over here and meet Jolyne." Mikitaka came over to them and nodded to her. "Mikitaka rents the other outbuilding that we have."

"Oh, that's cool," Jolyne said with a smile at him.

"What do you do?" Giorno asked her.

"Oh, I'm going to school, too. I go out to VA as well, I'm in entomology," she said with a smile. "Ermes is going for a business degree, and Anasui works at an electronics recycling center. He's very good at taking things apart," she continued as the others at their food.

It was then that Giorno looked at Mikitaka and realized his plate was gone. He blinked, knowing that he hadn't moved at all. It seemed that the strange man had eaten his food and the paper plate it had come on… He shook his head and decided that he shouldn't dwell on it. The fact he said he was an alien came back to him though.

He jumped as Mista put a hand on his shoulder. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you."

"It's okay, I was just thinking that it's time to feed the ducklings anyway," he said with a smile at him.

"Ducklings?" Jolyne asked. "You have ducklings too?"

"Yeah, would you like to see them?" Giorno asked and gestured for Jolyne and Anasui to follow him.

The ducklings were getting bigger and starting to show what colors they were going to be. Giorno fed them and pointed at one that was standing up a little more than the others.

"I think that one is called a runner duck. The look like a bowling pin on legs when they run from what I saw. Then the one with the tufts on his head might be another type of runner duck, see how he stands up. The three black and white ones there, I think they're either Muscovy or Magpie ducks. The one that's white with a little black I think is an Ancorna duck. That little one there looks like it might be a mallard." Giorno looked over at the group who were staring at him. "Sorry, I researched them quite a bit…" he said with a smirk.

"They're adorable," Anasui said as he looked over the little fence at them.

"When they're big enough, we're going to let them out on the property because there's a small pond for them to play in. Of course, this winter, we'll have to keep them in the house there to keep them warm," Giorno explained, smiling at the small creatures.

Mista grabbed his hand and clutched it as the dark began to settle over them. "I'm not feeling the best," he murmured to him. "I think I'm going on inside to bed."

Giorno nodded, feeling like he should do something for him. "Do you need me to come in?" he asked.

"No, go ahead and stay out here with everyone. I just feel a little off," he said as he patted Giorno on the back.

He spent the rest of the evening chatting with everyone and getting to know the others. He still thought Mikitaka was rather strange, and he found out that Jolyne and her partners liked to have parties a lot. They promised not to get too loud, though. All in all, Giorno thought the whole night had been a success and felt very good about it when he went inside to find Mista fast asleep already. Strange, he thought, he never went to sleep so early.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Giorno felt bad because Mista was sick the next morning. It seemed he'd caught some sort of stomach virus and was throwing up in the bathroom half the night. Since it was Monday, he was going to miss school.

"I'll bring you any work that you need from our class," Giorno told him as he laid in the bed looking miserable.

"I'm sorry I have to miss today," Mista said with a frown.

"I just wish I could stay home and take care of you, but I have to make it today. Our biology class has a quiz," Giorno said with a sigh.

Mista took his hand gently and kissed his knuckles. "It's better that you aren't around me while I'm sick, so you don't catch it," he said with a smile up at him. "Good luck on your quiz."

Giorno headed down to the kitchen and had his cup of tea with Bruno before they all headed to school. All in all, it was a pretty average morning for them, just without Mista. Bruno drove them all to the school and Giorno walked with him to their biology class. Toward the end of class, Dr. Kujo called him up to the front of the room.

"Dr. Kujo?" he said and looked at him questioningly.

"Mr. Giovanna, I wanted to say that despite your late start, you have been doing quite well in my class. I wanted to let you know that I've seen a great deal of improvement since the first class period and whatever you're doing is working for your classwork."

Giorno smiled. "Thank you, Dr. Kujo. I'm in a better living situation that the first of class, and things are going well for me in my personal life," he explained and felt a swell of pride that he was being praised for doing well. He most certainly had been trying to do well by his advisor.

"Yes, well, keep up the good work," Dr. Kujo said and nodded toward him.

Giorno couldn't help but grin as he headed back to his seat where Bruno looked up at him. When he saw the smile Giorno had, he guessed it had to be a good thing, and wasn't worried about it. After class, Giorno went and sat at the Park and thought about how things were going with Mista. He was just as happy now as when Mista had first said something to him and they ended up doing things together. It was so surreal to think he had a _boyfriend_. It was something so strange that he had thought he would never have something like that happen to him. He just assumed he'd always be alone because of the way he was.

He looked out on the natural area around him and was comforted by it. It was like everything was coming together for him now that he was away from his household and their toxic influence. He felt a peace with the world he'd never known while living with his mom and step-father. It amazed him to have someone that cared about him despite his tumultuous past. He glanced at his phone, seeing it was time for the class he shared with Mista. He then would have some time at the library before he headed out to the car to go home.

Class without Mista there wasn't as fun, he noticed. He missed him being there and after class he went up to let the professor know why Mista had missed. Luckily, the professor was understanding, and all Mista had missed was a lecture. That was easy enough to share the notes for the day with him. Giorno then took the chance to go to the library and settle in to read a book he'd borrowed last week. He read until it was almost time to go meet Fugo and Bruno at the car. He was a little early, as the last class would be letting out in about fifteen minutes. He figured he'd go ahead to the car and avoid the crowd of people trying to get out at the same time.

The parking lot was empty as he came out into it and he realized that someone was walking behind him. He thought it was just another student but before long they had caught up with him and moved to suddenly put an arm around him. Giorno jerked and looked over to see a man with white hair, darker skin, and green eyes smiling at him.

"I would stay quiet," the strange man said.

It was then Giorno felt something hard pressing into his side and he realized it was a gun under the guy's jacket. He gasped and froze where he was standing, heart pounding in his ears. "Please, don't…"

"You won't be hurt if you just come with me like a good boy," the man said and ground the gun barrel into his side. "Just walk over to that van parked right at the side. You're going to get in it, then I'm going to tie you up. If you cooperate, you don't have to worry at all."

"Wh-who are you? W-what do you want with me?" he stammered as he started walking toward the white colored cargo van that was parked at the side of the road.

"Don't worry your pretty little head about that," he said as the door to the van opened to reveal a red-haired man inside it. "Get in."

Giorno did what he was told, feeling the gun barrel at his back as soon as the guy moved. He swallowed thickly as he sat down inside the van. The red-haired man grabbed his hands and used a zip tie to bind his hands together behind him. The first one pulled out a black sack and shoved it over his head and he couldn't see a thing. He heard the van door slide shut and then two doors opening and closing. He guessed the two had gotten in the front seat. He wanted to do something to try and get out of there, but his hands were so tightly bound that his fingers were going numb.

"Finally," the voice of the other, red-haired man said.

"Took us a lot longer than I expected, hope the boss is happy," the first man said. Giorno recognized his voice pretty easily. He was taking big gulps of air and trying to keep from hyperventilating.

"Boss'll be happy we got it done."

They were quiet the rest of the ride until they pulled to a stop. Then, he was being yanked out of the back of the van, still blinded as they led him somewhere. He stumbled as they started to go upstairs, and they jerked him along none too kindly. He gasped as he was tossed into a sofa finally. Then he was blinded as one of them pulled of the black bag. He took a second and blinked, looking to see he was in some sort of office and there was a man with pink and black hair sitting behind the desk.

"Smile," he said and snapped a picture of Giorno with his phone.

"What is this? Why am I here?" he asked, feeling a bit bolder now that he was in front of the apparent boss of these guys.

"I'm Diavolo," the man with the pink and black hair said with a snide grin. "And your step-father owes me money. So, I took you."

Giorno stared at him for a second before he laughed out loud. "Well, you'll never get anything out of him for me, he hates me!"

Diavolo frowned and glanced at the two who had kidnapped him. "Tiziano, you'll show our new friend to a private quarters, won't you?"

The darker skinned man nodded and came over toward him and stood him up. Tiziano pulled him toward the door. Giorno didn't know what to do except going along with him. He had no idea what to expect and if they were using him against his step-father, there was no way that it was going to end well. If they wanted money out of him, he was never going to give up money in exchange for him.

Giorno looked around and found himself inside some sort of building that looked like some sort of open building with people working in the front area downstairs. Everything was going on like nothing was wrong as he was walked by people at desks and computers. He looked around and saw the door he had come from was on a mezzanine above the floor.

Tiziano took him down another set of stairs into a finished basement. There were several doors down there and he was taken to one of the doors and tossed into what turned out to be a room with a cot and a doorway to a bathroom. The door shut behind him and he heard the heavy sound of it locking. He turned around and stared at the closed door for a long time before he mechanically moved to the cot and sat down.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

"Where's Giorno?" Bruno said as he stood and waited at the car with Fugo.

"He's never this late. Maybe he fell asleep somewhere?" Fugo said as they looked around. The last class had let out over twenty minutes ago.

Fugo pulled out his phone and dialed Giorno's number. There was no answer. He put it away. "Maybe we should check the library?" Bruno said as he began to worry about him.

"You go to the library, I'll go to the main building and see if he's fallen asleep in those chairs in the front," Fugo said as they both headed back toward the school.

Bruno asked in the library if he'd been there and the librarian said she thought she remembered a blond boy in there earlier, but there was no one there now. As he was leaving a short boy ran up to him.

"Hey, I see you walk with that blond a lot," he said. "I'm Koichi. I'm in here a lot when your friend comes in every day to read or study, and he was here today."

"He was?" Bruno nodded. "How long ago?"

"Maybe half an hour or more? But he left, and I saw him walking with two other guys I didn't know. Never seen them before, but they acted like they knew him awful well, one put his arm around him," Koichi said with a shrug. "Maybe he went home with them?"

Bruno nodded. "Um, yeah, thank you, I'll see if I can't locate him…"

Bruno walked away from the short student and began to worry. Giorno never was late to the car, and the only difference today was that Mista wasn't with him. So, had someone lured him away from the school with something? Or had he just met someone he knew? He looked up as Fugo came walking back, shaking his head.

"He wasn't there," Fugo explained and looked a bit worried too.

"He was in the library and one of the regular students said he saw him walk with a couple of guys he didn't know and had never seen before," Bruno said as they headed to the car. "What if something happened to him?"

They headed back home to see if for some reason, Giorno had come home with someone else. They didn't tell Mista yet, as he was still sleeping off whatever sickness he'd contracted, but Narancia hadn't seen any sign of him. They had no idea what to do, so they had dinner and hoped that somehow he'd show up or he'd call or something. Formaggio came by that evening and saw the state that everyone was in.

"Why's everyone so glum tonight?" he asked as he came into the house.

"Oh, we've seemingly lost one of our people. Giorno's missing," Bruno explained. "He didn't come out to meet us and someone told me he was seen with two other men."

"You could always ask Risotto," Formaggio said with a shrug. "If it is something illegal, he might know something about it."

"Hmm, I could ask him," Bruno said and followed Formaggio down to the bunker.

Risotto looked much better by now and was doing quite well. Formaggio took care of brining him food and supplies that he needed. He looked up from where he was seated on the small sofa when Formaggio and Bruno came in.

"Hey, Risotto. If someone disappears, where would someone go look for information on them?" Bruno asked with a sigh.

Risotto stared for a second. "Depends on who they are. Who's missing?"

"One of the boys that stays here, Giorno Giovanna. He was supposed to meet us after class today and was seen with two strange men by someone," Bruno explained.

"Giovanna?" Risotto said with a scrunched brow. "I know that name," he muttered. "While I was working for Diavolo, that name came up on the ledger of people that owed money for drugs now and then…"

"Drugs?" Bruno frowned. "It wouldn't be Giorno, he's not on any drugs…"

"His parents?" Formaggio asked as he sat down beside Risotto.

"Maybe, but they are suburban family, well to do in the area…" Bruno said, still not sure about the idea that his family was into drugs.

"That's the kind you never suspect, but the kind that buy drugs all too often. If this kid's family owed money to someone like Diavolo, he could have been snatched as ransom to get his money out of them. He's done that sort of thing before," Risotto explained as he looked through the bags that Formaggio had brought.

"This just got complicated…" Bruno sighed and wondered how they were going to figure out what had happened for sure.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

"What do you mean he didn't care about it?" Diavolo said with a sigh. "I have his step-son and it doesn't matter to him? What a bastard."

Tiziano nodded. "He said you could have him for all he cared."

Diavolo shook his head and tried to decide the best course of action. He could kill the boy, but that would be a waste of a perfectly good test subject for Volpe's new drugs. He thought that perhaps getting some use out of him would be the way to go, since he couldn't get the money out of his step-father.

"Send Volpe up," he said as he waved a hand to dismiss Tiziano.

"Sure, boss," he said and got up to go get the other man.

Diavolo looked through the ledger until he heard a knock at the door. He wondered exactly what new drugs his designer would have for him.

"Enter," he called out and the thin man came into the room.

"You wanted me, boss?" he asked as he sat his bony frame down in the chair across the desk from Diavolo.

"Yes, seems like I've acquired a new test subject for you to use. Boy who has a step-father that owes me money, but he won't pay up for him. So, figured you could use him," Diavolo spoke without looking up from the ledger he was looking at.

Volpe smiled and nodded. "I can always use a good test subject for some new things I'm trying out. Do you care if he lives or dies?"

Diavolo looked up at him as he thought for a moment. Did it matter? Not really. "I have no preference for what happens to him. You may do as you like."

Volpe nodded. "Of course. Is he in the basement cells?"

"Hmm, yes. He's been in there for a few hours already, so he might be ready to get out of there. Unfortunately, your lab won't be an improvement over his current situation," Diavolo said as he smiled now at Volpe. "Do enjoy."

"Of course, boss," Volpe said and stood up, heading immediately down to the basement holding cells.

He came down to the guard and tapped him on the shoulder. "Bring the prisoner to my lab. Make sure he's handcuffed, please."

He then left and headed to the lab he had set up in one of the empty conference rooms. He looked at the recent things he'd been working with and found one that was ready to be tried out on a human. It was a good drug, if it worked right. He looked up as the guard from downstairs pushed a stumbling blond haired boy into the room.

"Hello, and what is your name?" Volpe asked as the nervous boy stood just inside the doorway with the guard standing behind him.

"G-Giorno," he stammered and looked around at the lab.

"Come, sit, young Giorno. You're just going to help me with a few things. And you'll be a good boy and do as you're told, won't you?" Volpe smirked at him as the guard practically drug him toward the chair on the other side of the room.

Volpe took out the handcuff key in his pocket and unlocked one of Giorno's wrists and then snapped it onto the arm of the chair to keep him in place. Giorno stared at his handcuffed wrist then looked up at Volpe.

"What are you going to do with me?" he asked, and Volpe saw that the poor boy was trying very hard to hide his fear with bravado.

"You're going to help me, like I said," he told him and turned around to pick up a syringe with a red colored liquid. He flicked the barrel and smiled at Giorno. "Now, you might feel a little stick…" he said as he grabbed hold of his free arm.

Giorno tried to yank it away from him, but he found Volpe's grip was stronger than he looked. He pressed the syringe into his arm, injecting the drug directly into a vein. He smiled. "You have good veins. That's going to be handy," he said as he stood up.

Giorno looked like he was going to fall forward for a minute as the drugs hit his system. He gasped and held up his hand, seeing the fingers double, then triple. Volpe smiled as he watched his hapless victim cope with the psychedelic effects of the drug. It might cause terrors, he didn't know yet. He seemed to be on a good trip for the time being, so he recorded his observations in his journal.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Twisted Sisght

Finding his sons was something that had been on Dio Brando's mind for a while now. So, he was now sitting in front of the residence he had found for their family. He looked at the suburban house that looked so much like all the others around them. It had no personality at all. He sighed and wondered how his oldest would take to seeing him again now that he was eighteen. He stepped out of the car, leaving his driver and bodyguard Vanilla Ice in the car. He doubted he'd need him here. He went to the door of the house and knocked.

"What is it?" came a familiar voice as he waited for the door to open.

She looked much the same as when he had last seen her, other than aging a great deal over the last eighteen years. She had a wine glass in her hand and stared at him blankly for a moment.

"What do you want?" she said finally.

"I came to see my son," he said with a hard glance at her. "He's eighteen now, so I've come to speak to him."

She stared at him for a few more moments before she shrugged. "I don't know where he is. He left months ago after starting school at Vento Aureo. Took all his things and left. He's off with someone from there."

"You don't know where our son is?" he asked with a sigh. "How can you possibly not know where he's gone?"

"I don't know, he's your son so imagine what you will about him. He looks like you, too. You'll be proud when you meet him," she said and closed the door on him.

Dio frowned and returned to the car. "Take us to Vento Aureo."

Ice nodded from the front and obediently took off toward the college. He had a contact in the college that would be able to help him, he knew. He soon arrived at the school and found his way to the library where Mariah worked. She would be able to answer any question he had about the workings of the school, and quite a few about those that went there.

"Mr. Brando," she said with a smile as she looked up at him. "I didn't expect to see you here."

"I'm looking for my son, and I understand that he goes to school here. I was hoping you could help me locate him. He's staying with someone else that goes to school here. Here's a recent photograph," he said and handed over a picture that had been taken of him close to his eighteenth birthday.

Mariah looked at the picture and nodded. "I've seen him a lot; he comes in all the time."

"Do you know who he's living with?" Dio wasn't sure if she would know such a detail, but he could try to get as much information as he could.

She looked thoughtful. "I've seen him around Pannacotta Fugo and his bunch. I don't know for sure, but he might be living there. I know he has a big place and a lot of people live there."

"Fugo?" Dio said with a nod. "Alright, I'll look into that."

Dio left and went back to the car where Ice was waiting for him. He got back in and pulled out his phone. He looked up the name and found an address for him nearby. It would make sense for someone to live close to their school he supposed. He had Ice drive him out to the location so he could investigate her claim. The worst that could happen was that no one would be home or they would not be related to his son at all. He watched as he took him to a property in Chesterfield. He got out with Ice getting out with him. He doubted he'd be at risk in a place like this but who knew for sure.

He approached the door to the house. He looked around to see it was well wooded and had several smaller buildings aside from the large main house. As he got closer, he noted a pen with some young ducks running around in it. He thought that was interesting. He came to the door and knocked gently. A few seconds later, the door opened and he was looking at a thin man with chin length black hair standing there.

"Can I help you?" he said with a frown.

"Yes, I was informed that Giorno Giovanna might be here," he said and saw the other man's face twist in something else. That was unusual.

"Well, you're a little late. He's missing right now," the black-haired man said.

Dio frowned. "Missing?"

"Who are you?" he asked suspiciously.

"My name is Dio Brando. I'm Giorno's biological father," he said and gestured behind him at the tall, long haired man that stood there. "And this is my bodyguard and driver, Vanilla Ice."

"I'm Bruno Buccellati," he said and looked back into the house. "We were just discussing what to do about Giorno. He disappeared yesterday from the school."

"Maybe I could be of assistance," he said with a nod at him.

"Please, come in," Bruno said and gestured for them to enter the house.

Risotto and Formaggio were sitting on the sofa and looked up as Dio and Ice entered the room. At the table, Mista, Narancia, and Fugo all sat with tea before them. Dio looked around at the mishmash of the place around him with an arched brow but said nothing. It looked like the place was in the middle of being remodeled or something.

Bruno pointed to Dio. "This is Giorno's real father, who is looking for him."

Mista looked at him intently for a minute. "I recognize you from the picture that Giorno has of you."

Dio nodded. "What has occurred to my son?"

"Risotto here knows the most about who we think has him," Bruno said, motioning to the man seated on the side of the sofa with dark eyes and a heavy aura about him. "We were discussing our options."

"What do you think has happened to him?" Dio asked, a serious look on his face. There was, of course, the chance that these people were wrong. He didn't think they were lying to him though.

Risotto cleared his throat. "I used to work for a man named Diavolo. He's got a small drug trade in the area, mostly designer drugs that they manufacture. He's twisted and paranoid, and he uses people's families when someone owes money. I remember seeing the name Giovanna in the ledger."

"It had to have been one of his parents," Mista said from his place at the table still. "Giorno didn't do any drugs. Probably his stepfather. He was abusing him when he moved in with us."

Dio arched a brow again and continued to look impassive as he glanced back at Risotto.

"If he was kidnapped by Diavolo, you need to get him out of there quickly. He won't last long." Risotto flinched as he seemed to remember his own encounter.

Dio was silent for a moment. "Where can I find this Diavolo?"

Risotto glanced at Formaggio. "I can tell you where some of his places were, but I don't know where he would keep Giorno."

Risotto gave Dio as much information that he had on Diavolo's location. Dio thanked them and gave his contact information to Bruno so that he could easily contact him again. He then headed out and went to go find some of his contacts to try and help find his son. After he stopped and had a little chat with Giorno's stepfather, of course.

At Passione Villa, Fugo knew he was going to have a break down, he could feel it building and now with Giorno's situation, it was just all going to explode. He headed outside without saying anything more to the others. Bruno and Narancia already knew what was wrong and let him go.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Not far away, a man named Benjamin Boom Boom lived with his two sons, L.A. and Andre. What his sons didn't know was heir father had found an easy way to make money by cooking meth when he went to work. They didn't know what he was doing, only that his job now was bringing in more money than his previous one had. Benjamin had decided not to tell his sons what was going on so the didn't end up in a life of crime like he was involved with. He still took care of L.A. because he had some menta disability from their mother taking drugs while she was pregnant. That was the main reason that he kept the boys away from her.

Unfortunately, this caught the attention of Diavolo and his men. The idea that someone else was going to deal in drugs in their area was ludicrous and they would put a stop to it.

Benjamin, Andre, and L.A. were all headed home that night, when L.A. noticed a strange car tailing them.

"I think that car is following us," he said with a worried glance behind them.

"Shut up," Andre muttered. "It's just someone going the same way we are."

L.A. wasn't sure, but he listened to his brother. Before long the car began riding their bumper and signaling that it wanted to pass them. Benjamin shifted over to the side of the road to let them pass. L.A. was watching them pass when sudden shots started flying from the rear passenger window and Benjamin hit the brakes, careening off the road into a tree. L.A. had thrown himself down to the floorboards and hadn't been hit. He got up when the car stopped and saw his father with blood running down the side of his face and Andre covered in blood and not moving

Fleeing the car in terror, L.A. ended up stumbling onto the nearby property where Passione Villa was located. As storm clouds began to gather in the sky, the frightened man saw Fugo kicking things and yelling at the sky, ranting and raving at no one.

Nearby, Ermes was watching, thinking at first Fugo was practicing some sort of performance art or something by the way he was acting. His movements were broad and exaggerated and he was yelling at the sky while gesticulating wildly. She watched for a few minutes. She quickly realized, though, that he wasn't acting, and he was actually releasing everything in a rage induced rampage of a type. L.A. on the other hand was too busy frantically crying and laughing to even notice Fugo as thunder began to resound in the sky.

L.A. didn't know a lot of things, but he knew he had lost his brother and his father. He was hysterical and sobbing. He saw a house and ran toward it trying to get into it. He figured that somewhere to hide could be found inside the place, and in his state, he needed to hide from those that were shooting at them. He got the door open as he felt someone grab him by the shoulders. He turned to see a large man with a zebra printed hat and a sheriff's deputy badge on his leopard print shirt.

"L.A., your brother's alive, calm down!" he said.

Fugo by now had raged himself out and was sitting exhausted on the ground by the duck pen. He looked over to see the large man trying to calm down the frantic one but was too exhausted by his own rage that he just shook his head and sat there.

The sheriff's deputy went by Mountain Tim and knew the family pretty well. He had just left the ambulance that was taking Andre to the hospital and had seen L.A. run off from the scene, so he went after him. He'd tracked him easily to the next property over. Now, there were people coming out of the house to see what all the ruckus was about.

"What's going on?" Bruno asked as he came out the door.

"I'm very sorry, but this man stumbled onto your property," Tim said as he squeezed L.A.'s shoulder as he sat on the ground still sobbing and laughing now and then. "I tracked him here and need to take him to the hospital to be with his brother who was just shot."

Tim then got L.A. to his feet and led him back toward their property as it began to thunder. He managed to get the young man in a car and sent him to the hospital to be with his brother. He then proceeded to begin looking around for evidence around the house to see if they could figure out why this had happened and what was going on.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Toyohiro Kanedachi lived in an old water tower that he converted into a home. It was a strange place to live, most people would say, but it was a good home that he made for himself. He'd been able to buy the place super cheap and had a great view of all the areas around him. He enjoyed spending his time in the top of the tower just looking out on the green countryside around Chesterfield. He had recently been getting visits from a nearby resident that saw him wandering around the ground around the tower one day.

Mikitaka was an unusual sort, he thought, but he was a good enough guy. He was definitely someone that brought up strange topics. Today, he saw that Mikitaka was bringing someone with him to the tower. He rappelled down the tower to get to the ground just as they came up.

"Mikitaka!" he hailed as he came nearer.

"Toyohiro, this is my friend Bruno Buccellati that lives on the same property that I live. He had a couple questions for you," Mikitaka said as he indicated the dark-haired man beside him.

"Of course," he said as he walked over to them. His macaw, Superfly, landed on his shoulder and made a noise at the newcomers. "Calm down," he said, rubbing the bird's head as he walked toward them.

Mikitaka smiled and bowed slightly to him as Bruno reached out his hand to shake. Toyohiro shook hands with him and nodded. "What can I help you with?" he asked.

"I was wondering if you had any ideas for where someone could be taken that was kidnapped by the drug lord Diavolo in the area," Bruno asked, knowing full well it was a long shot.

Toyohiro thought for a second. "I mean, I can be on the lookout for something that might be a hideout I guess. What happened?"

"A friend of ours that lives on the property was grabbed by Diavolo and we have no idea to even begin looking for him. Mikitaka said that you watched a lot of the areas around here and might be able to give us a direction to look into for answers," Bruno said.

"What kind of things should I look for?" he asked, frowning.

"I'm not sure, but it is somewhere that Diavolo and his men come and go from. We have no idea where it might be, but we suspect it to be close by since he runs drugs in the area," Bruno explained, looking around. "I think you would have an excellent view of the areas nearby, though."

Toyohiro nodded. "I can see quite a bit from the top of the tower."

"Could you be on the lookout for anything unusual so that we have some place to start?" Bruno requested.

"Of course," Toyohiro said. "I could look for something like that. Mikitaka comes to seem me most days, so if I see something, it would be easy for him to get it back to you."

"Very well, we appreciate it. We'd like to find Giorno quickly because we don't know what's happened to him." Bruno started to leave when Toyohiro put his hand out.

"Wait, there is something…" he started.

"Yeah?" Bruno asked, curious.

"Well, there's an office building I noticed that has people coming and going in the evening and late at night. I thought it was weird, but maybe something like that would be your place?" he asked as he pulled out his binoculars. "I can keep checking on that place if you want. I can give you approximately where it is based on the cross roads near it."

Toyohiro went back up and used his high-powered binoculars to locate the place again. He found the closest intersection to it pretty easily. He then went back down and told Bruno what he'd seen and where it was.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Giorno had decided that this was some sort of hell. He sat in the chair, handcuffed to the arm of it, as he saw things that weren't real. He knew they weren't real, but they felt real. These were nightmares made real before his eyes. Then when he came down of whatever this guy gave him, he felt sick and weak. It was a surreal effect because he was at the same time about to come out of skin and seeing things that couldn't be real.

The worst were the hands. He kept having hand grab him and hold him down. He would panic and scratch at the hands, trying to pry them off his arms and legs. He ended up leaving long scratches on both his arms on the back and some on his stomach where his nails dug into him. He just had to get the hands off of him.

Volpe watched his reactions, recording various things. The drug was a variant of MDMA, or ecstasy. It was a slightly altered version of the already available drug. He seemed to be hallucinating under the influence of it. He was on the second day of tests and so far, the boy had been useful. He hadn't died, so that was a plus on the development of this particular drug. The addictive properties were higher than most drugs and should have caused a dependence relatively quickly.

"Get 'em of me," Giorno said again, digging at the back of his right arm. It was already bleeding again where he'd torn scabs from yesterday's tests.

"It's okay, Giorno. It's okay. No one is going to hurt you here," Volpe said with a calm voice as he jotted down the time frame for the start of the hallucinations.

"But they won't let go!" he exclaimed and Volpe smiled, coming around and kneeing in front of him. His pupils were dilated wide and his breath was coming in quick pants. The right arm was handcuffed to the chair, and all around the wrist, it was raw and red where he'd been pulling at the handcuff. Blood dripped down his arm in a steady trickle.

"Hush, what do you see?" Volpe asked, pulling his left hand away from his right arm. His hand flexed and blood dripped from the tips of his fingers.

"The hands are holding me down…" he breathed out.

Volpe smiled. The hands, so he was perceiving the hands in his mind as holding him down. Giorno gasped suddenly and stared at the wall.

"Sh-shut up!" he said, waving his left hand at the wall.

In his view he saw twisted, grotesque faces covering the wall. They were laughing at him and saying horrible things.

"You think Mista actually likes you?"

"How pathetic are you, getting caught so easily."

"Where do you think they are now? Do they even care you're gone?"

"You're nothing to them…"

"You're nothing but a worthless brat…"

Volpe smiled, running a gentle hand over Giorno's face. "There, now. Don't get too worked up, I can't guarantee how well your heart will take to this much stress."

Giorno's head snapped around and he stared at Volpe, eyes wide and blank. "They won't shut up…" he whispered to him seriously.

"Yes, I know, but they aren't real, remember?" Volpe was testing how real the illusion was in his mind.

"They're real, they're there, laughing at me!" he exclaimed and then started to dig at his arm again. "And they won't let go!"

Volpe stood up and recorded his observations again as the door opened and he saw Diavolo had come to see how things were going. He came over and stared at Giorno who was staring at the wall again.

"How is the trial coming along?" Diavolo asked.

"Good, the kid's smallish and skinny, so the drug affects him quickly. He is responding to the drug well, and so far no life threatening problems have occurred. After I finish testing this week, it should be good to go into production."

"Good, good," Diavolo said with a smile. "Do you think he'll live through it?"

"I'm not sure. I'm testing how much is a safe dose without overdosing, so we'll see how long he can tolerate it. His heart might not be able to take the highest dosages I have planned by the end of the week. But we'll see, he's been resilient so far."

"Good. Let me know the results and when we can push forward with manufacture, then. I leave it to you," Diavolo stated and headed back out of his lab.

Volpe turned back to his test subject and smiled. He didn't often get to have test subjects, so it was nice to get some. Sometimes he got volunteers who wanted to try out the new drugs for free, but they were few and far between.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Dio stood outside the house to Giorno's mother and stepfather once again. He knocked and waited for the answer. Giorno's mother answered it and glared at him.

"What do you want?" she asked.

"I need to talk to you and your husband about my son," he said and arched a brow. Behind him, Ice stood stoically and said nothing, only stared.

There were rumors about Vanilla Ice and who he was. Dio had heard it all since he'd had the man as his bodyguard. He'd heard that he was in prison once for killing a bunch of people. He'd also heard that he was a member of Russian Special Forces. But his favorite rumor had to be the idea that he was some kind of genetic experiment. None of those things were true, but even Dio himself didn't know everything about his lover/personal bodyguard.

"Please, come in, then," she said tightly, stepping back and letting him come into the house.

She led them to the living room where her husband was sitting watching TV. He looked up when Dio and Ice came into the room. He stood up, staring at Ice more than Dio.

"I came to find out who you were getting your drugs from," Dio said without hesitation.

Giorno's stepfather glared at him. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, Giorno has been kidnapped by someone, and I want to know why this has happened, and where to look for him," he said and narrowed his eyes at the other man.

"Why do you care? Who the hell are you?" he asked, staring between Dio and Ice.

"My name is Dio Brando, and Giorno is my son. Now, tell me who supplied your drugs so I know for sure who I'm looking for to get him back." Dio crossed his arms and stared at him.

"I-I got them from Diavolo," he said, staring at Ice's quiet countenance.

"I also have the matter of your abuse of my son," Dio said dangerously.

"That little shit was always trying to read me! He deserved every beating he got!"

Dio arched a brow and sighed. He turned to Giorno's mother. "And you let this go on? You let this man abuse our son?"

She said nothing, only looked away from him. Dio nodded and looked to Ice. "Let's go, we've got what we came for."

They both headed for the door and Giorno's mother grabbed him by the arm. "What are you going to do?" she asked.

"I'm going to get my son back. I'll deal with the boy from now on. He sounds like he has some good qualities that I can appreciate," Dio told her and then left out the doorway to do exactly what he said. He had a direction to look now and that was worth everything.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

Blinded By the Light

Mountain Tim made his way through the hospital toward Andre Boom Boom's room. He needed to find out how much those boys knew about their father's involvement with someone that would have attacked them. They knew already who it most likely was. That was easy enough to find out. The attack had Diavolo's stamp all over it.

He came to the room to find Andre laid up in the bed but conscious and his brother L.A. sitting beside him looking worried. He took off his hat as he came into the room.

"Andre, L.A.," he said, nodding to each of them. "Came by to see how you boys were."

"Still in shock," Andre said with a wide-eyed stare. "I can't believe Dad's dead."

"You boys have any idea why someone would have gone after you all like that?" Tim asked as he turned his hand around in his hands.

"No, we never done anything to anyone," L.A. said with a frown across his face. He tucked his hair behind his ears ad looked with concern at Andre.

Tim sighed, knowing that there was something going on that got them targeted and it had to do with drugs. "Had your dad been doing anything unusual lately?"

"He had a new job, but he couldn't have his phone on while he was there, and he couldn't take us with him," Andre explained as L.A. nodded beside him.

"Do you think it could have been drug related?" he asked and knew they might not know anything about it at all.

Andre and L.A. glanced at each other and looked back to Tim. "I dunno why he'd get involved with drugs; that was why he took us away from our mom. She was on drugs, and that and she slept around a lot, he said." Andre stared at the officer with a serious stare.

"Your dad was in and out of jail when he was younger, wasn't he?" Tim asked as he flipped his hat around slowly.

"Yeah, Dad had a temper and would get into fights with people that insulted him or the family, but that was it," L.A. told him as he ran his hands through his hair again.

"He was making a lot more money, though," Andre said and sighed. "All of a sudden he had a lot coming in."

"What are we gonna do?" L.A. said suddenly. "You only work at the college a few days a week as a janitor! Where we gonna get money?"

Andre coughed and shook his head. "We'll have to figure that out after I get out of here…"

"Well, boys, as soon as I find something out for sure, I'll let you know," Tim said, not sure yet that what he suspected about their father was true or not.

He headed out and back to the office to see if they had anything else on Diavolo come in recently. Once he was there, he came across a missing person's report that was suspected to be involved with him. He realized the address was the place that he'd found L.A. had run to. That was coincidental, he thought to himself. He decided that it was worth checking out.

Tim headed to the place again, wondering who they had come up missing. He pulled in beside a couple other cars and got out, looking around the place. It looked like a big plot of land with one main house and several outbuildings. He jumped a bit when he felt something against his leg. He glanced down to see a goat trying to nibble on his pants. He frowned and shook his head. Certainly wasn't the strangest pet he'd seen. He came to the door and saw a pen with ducks in it wandering around. Still not that strange. He knocked on the door.

The door was opened by a man with black hair and piercing blue eyes. He had a willowy figure and was very thin. "Can I help you?" he asked.

"Yes, my name is Mountain Tim, and I'm with the sheriff's office. I was coming by about your report of a missing person that you think might be involved with a man named Diavolo," he explained as he swept his hat off his head and held it in his hands.

"Oh, yes, here, do come in," the dark-haired man said and stepped out of the way.

Inside there were more people than Tim expected. He looked about, seeing a man with white hair seated on the sofa, a young man or woman in a vintage looking dress, a man with blond hair seated at the table with a large man standing at his shoulder, another man with dark hair and a hat at the table, and another man with light colored hair seated on the sofa.

The man with the white hair reached out and snatched what looked like a catalog off the table. To Tim's quick eyes, it looked like something for adult toys.

"I'm Bruno Buccellati, and we're actually discussing what to do about Giorno's disappearance with his father, Dio Brando," he told him as he gestured toward the blond man. "His guard, Vanilla Ice is behind him, then this is Narancia, Fugo, Mista, and Leone," he said as he pointed to each person in turn. "What can we do for you, Mr. Tim?"

"Just Tim is fine," Tim said with a grin. "I don't know if you recall but I was here last night when that boy ran onto your property. That incident seems to be involved with Diavolo as well, so I came here to investigate this missing person case."

"I'm sure my son has been taken by this Diavolo. His step-father as much as admitted to owing the man money when I inquired as to whether he knew what had happened to Giorno. His step-father, unfortunately, didn't seem to care that he put the boy in danger," the man with blond hair said. "I would like to ensure his quick recovery."

"If this Diavolo has the boy, a quick recovery would be the best-case scenario. Drugs are his purview and I can see him not being held indefinitely without being harmed," Tim explained as he held his hat tightly in his hands. "Have you discovered anything that could help with the investigation?"

"Well," the one named Fugo said from where he sat. "We asked this guy that lives in an old water tower if he'd seen anything, and he identified a building where there's a lot of activity at night instead of during that day. We think that may be the location. It's close enough to give him access to the whole area for his drug dealing."

Tim nodded. "I might be able to gather a few of my fellow officers to go in for a bust, at least to look around."

"Ice can go with you," Dio said as he gestured behind him. "He's a good man in a fight and can definitely help out."

Tim nodded and Bruno pushed Leone on the back of his shoulder. The other man cleared his throat. "I was thinking I could help out. I used to be a cop and all," he said with a glance up at Tim.

"I'm sure that can be arranged. I will take your information and then contact you with any news that I can put together. It might be in our best interest to have things happen quickly if the boy is in immediate danger," he said as he reached in his pocket and took out a small pad of paper and a pen.

Tim quickly took down Dio and Leone's information and got Bruno's as well. He would go back to the office and see if he couldn't put together a small team to go question these people at the building. He didn't know what reason they would have to go into the place, but he was confident that once they were there, they would be able to find a something to get into it.

"Oh, and your goat was out by the cars, I don't know if it's supposed to be in a pen or what," Tim said as he turned toward the door.

Fugo looked at him, then the others. "Goat? We don't have a goat…"

"There's a goat?" Narancia said and jumped up, pushing past Tim to go see it. Mista jumped up and followed him. Bruno just shook his head and sighed, walking out with Tim to find that there was indeed a small, brown goat standing by the duck pen. It looked healthy and didn't seem to be sick in any way.

"Well, that's interesting," Bruno said as Narancia knelt down to play with the goat.

Tim shrugged and smiled at them. "Who knows where he came from. What will you do about it?"

Bruno looked as Fugo came out and watched Narancia interact with the goat. "I guess we'll put an ad in the lost and found?" Fugo offered with a shrug. "If no one claims it, I guess we have a goat now."

Tim smiled, bidding these people farewell as he headed back to his car. He wondered how quickly he could put together a couple people to go investigate this place. It wouldn't be a bust so much as just and check in to see if anything was going on there. By the afternoon, he'd gathered enough evidence to go question those at this office building. They'd managed a connection between Benjamin Boom Boom and Diavolo and had secured a warrant to arrest him. Tim was very thankful for criminal informants at the moment. He called up Bruno, Dio, and Leone to let them know when they were going in to the place. They were all set to meet them there in an hour.

Arriving at the office building, Tim saw the big fella and the man named Dio already pulling up in front of the place. He saw the light-haired Leone waiting already as well.

Tim approached them and greeted them. Dio looked at Vanilla Ice. "Now, no killing anyone. Just drop 'em," Dio reminded him. "And keep a look out for Giorno."

Tim arched a brow at the other man's instructions but didn't say anything. The guy looked like he could handle himself just fine. He approached the door and found it locked. Considering it was an office building, this was odd. So, he knocked on it and rang the bell that was beside an intercom.

"Reason for your visit?" a voice answered.

"I'm with the sheriff's department. We have a warrant…" he began but then the intercom cut off.

Sighing, Tim shook his head and then stepped back to allow a couple of his men to break open the door. A few seconds later, they were in the place and headed toward the main floor. What they found was a building set up like an average office building but with special rooms off to the side. Diavolo was nowhere to be found, but they found what looked like a drug lab. A couple guards tried to stop them, but he found the big fella named Ice was efficient at taking them down quickly. He was quite impressed by him. They found one man, a tall, gangly fellow who identified himself as Volpe. He was taken in but refused to cooperate and tell them anything.

Ice and he found a basement and found what looked like a row of locked rooms in the place. Tim wondered if one of these could hold their boy. Ice took care of another guard as they came down into the basement and Tim found a ring of keys on the guy.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Giorno wasn't sure if what he was hearing was real or fake. All he knew was that he was feeling awful. He'd been locked in the room down in the basement of the building again after being subjected to the drugs again this time a higher dose. He was about to come out of his skin and the hallucinations were taking longer to go away. He'd already dug into his skin in so many places, he was sure that even his self-harming before hadn't been that bad. What he was hearing, though, was something that sounded like someone fighting outside the door to the room he was in.

He got up and put his ear to the door and wondered what was happening out there. Then the doorknob started to jiggle. He jumped back, gasping a bit. What if it was something bad? What if something bad was coming after him? His mind reeled, still hazy and without a firm purchase on reality. He was so far sure of only one thing, and that was his own existence. Other than that, he wasn't sure if anything was real.

The door popped open and he found himself staring at a tall man with a cowboy hat on. He blinked because the hat was in a zebra print.

"Are you Giorno?" the man asked him.

"Who-who are you?" he stammered, moving away from him.

"My name's Mountain Tim, and we've come to get you out of here," he said with a gregarious smile.

Giorno didn't know what to do. Should he trust this guy? He had no idea who he was other than what he said, but how could he be sure? He tentatively reached out and took the much larger man's hand and nervously followed him as he was led out up the steps.

"Giorno!" he heard, and the voice was familiar. He blinked again and saw Leone standing there.

"H-How did you get here?" he asked, confused.

Leone took him from Tim and led him out the doors of the place where police were arresting people and taking off with them in cars. There was an ambulance waiting out there. The lights and sounds were almost overwhelming as he stopped suddenly and dropped to the ground, covering his head with his hands. Too many lights, too many sounds, he couldn't stand it racking around his brain. He dully felt hands on his shoulders and then he was looking up into Leone's face.

"Come on, let's get you out of here," he said and helped him to his feet again. "That's it," he said and led him toward the ambulance. He got into the back of it and stared vacantly for a while. He jerked when someone started to put an IV into his arm. He felt something cool running into his arm and then he felt a little sleepy. He laid back down on the gurney and let his fleeting consciousness slip.

Leone watched as the started getting fluids into Giorno and checking him over. He seemed to pass out before they got much started on him. He turned around and saw the Sheriff's officer who had let him come on this mission.

"Thank you again, Tim," he said to him.

"No, you and that other fellow were a great help. I think he dealt with most of the bad guys before we even got to 'em." Tim smiled and clapped Leone on the back.

Leone smiled and looked over where some police officers were gathered. "I should go have a talk with them."

Tim nodded, pulling out his cell and dialed the number he had in it for the Villa. He was sure they would want to know right away that Giorno had been recovered.

"Buccellati," came the quick response.

"This is Mountain Tim. Wanted to let you know that we rescued your boy Giorno and he's at the hospital now. I didn't see too much of him before he left so I don't know that much on his condition," he explained.

On the other side, Bruno sighed and looked over at the table where Mista, Fugo, and Narancia were watching him with curious stares. They were all waiting to hear something. He smiled. "Thank you, I'm sure we'll be going to see him soon. Again, thank you for calling."

He turned and nodded. "They got him out; he's at the hospital now."

Mista stood up and nervously asked, "Can you take me to see him?"

Bruno smiled, knowing that Mista would want to see Giorno as soon as possible. "Of course, but Fugo and Narancia, why don't you stay here so as not to overwhelm him right away. We don't know his condition yet."

Fugo nodded. "Yeah, seems like the best course of action."

Bruno patted Mista on the back and steered him toward the door. "We don't know how he is?" he asked as they walked out to the car.

"Not yet, but his father, that Dio, should be there. He'll let us know what is going on, I'm sure," Bruno said as they got into the car.

Mista was quiet the rest of the way to the hospital, staring out the window into the evening's fading sun. Bruno let him be because he knew he was still torn up over Giorno getting kidnapped to start with. They had tried to insist that he was not at fault for what happened just because he hadn't been there. Still, Mista felt like it was somehow his responsibility to have protected Giorno somehow.

They arrived at the hospital and went to the waiting room on the floor Tim ha given them. Once there, they found Dio and Vanilla Ice waiting. Dio looked up as they came into the room.

"Have they said anything yet?" Bruno asked as they came into the room.

Dio looked up and shook his head. "Nothing yet. They are running tests right now," he told them. "Hopefully, they'll be able to tell what's happened to him."

"Mr. Brando?" came a voice from the doorway. Dio stood up and went over to the doctor with Bruno and Mista right on his heels.

"That's me, these are two of Giorno's roommates. What have you found out?" he asked.

"The police are taking his statement now, but from what we understand, he was given some drugs to 'test' them on a living specimen. From what he says there was no real pressure for him to either live or die from the man who had him, and said that the man who was giving him the drugs seemed to enjoy what he was doing." The doctor paused. "He's a little out of it, to put it simply. We don't know exactly what kind of drugs he was subjected to; we're waiting on toxicology for that to come back. We know the police collected samples of different compounds from the office building he was kept in."

Dio nodded. "Can he have visitors?"

The doctor nodded. "He's cleared for visitors once the police are done with him. I'll have a nurse come let you know when he's ready."

The doctor walked away and Mista wrung his hands. "Drugs? Will he be okay? Those things can mess you up for a long time? What if something's wrong with him now? What if he's not okay? What if…?"

"Hush," Bruno said, putting a hand on the normally laid back Mista's shoulder. It was odd to see him in such a frantic mood. "He'll be fine, and we'll deal with it if he needs help."

Mista sighed and walked over to the coffee cart to get a cup. Dio looked at Bruno.

"I take it that my son is in a relationship with that young man?" he said, watching the nerve wracked Mista fixing coffee for himself.

Bruno smiled. "Yes, a relatively new affair for both of them. Mista was sick the day that Giorno was kidnapped, so he puts blame on himself for not being there. I try to tell him he might have been taken too if he was with him," he said, watching Dio for signs of judgement. Giorno meeting his real father was a significant even, and he didn't want something like his relationship with Mista to cause issues with that.

"I see," Dio said and started to speak again when the nurse came in. "Excuse me, Mr. Brando, sir, the police have left if you wish to see your son."

Mista left the coffee where it sat and scurried after him and Bruno as they followed the young nurse wot a room nearby. "He's in here temporarily until we get him in a regular room."

Dio nodded, stopping outside the door. "I should not be the first one he sees, since I have yet to meet the boy before today."

"Can I…?" Mista asked and Bruno just smiled. "Go on in."

Mista entered the room and looked at Giorno. He was sitting in the bed, picking at bandages that were down both his forearms. He looked up as Mista came toward him, eyes wide.

"M-mista?" he muttered, staring at him. "Please tell me you're real and not a hallucination…"

Mista smiled and leaned over to hug him. "I'm real."

Giorno placed his arms around him and sighed out. "Oh gods, Mista," he said with a choked sound to his voice. "I thought I'd never see you again!"

"Me too," Mista said, holding onto him tightly. "I am so sorry I wasn't there that day for you!"

"Nonsense, it wasn't your fault. Who knows when those guys would have gotten to me otherwise. I was scared and they put all kinds of weird stuff in my veins and it made me see things and hear things, and now I'm going to have worse scars on my arms because I thought there were bugs under my skin and tried to scratch them out…" he rushed through the explanation.

"Shh," Mista said, patting his back as he still held him in a tight embrace. "We'll deal with it. They didn't hurt you otherwise, did they?" he said as he leaned back and looked over Giorno's face with careful eyes.

Giorno shook his head. "No, just the drugs they used on me, but it was terrible, the things I saw…"

"I know. Hey, so, Bruno is here. Fugo and Narancia stayed home, though. I think Leone is with the cops or something here somewhere. We haven't seen him yet. But, there's more. When you were taken, your real father showed up looking for you," Mista explained. "Like the man in your picture. He actually came to find you. And he's here and wants to meet you."

Giorno didn't know what to say, he just stared at Mista in shock. "My real father?" he whispered.

"Yeah, he seems like an okay guy. He was super worried about you," Mista told him, sitting down on the bed beside him. "Do you want me to go get him?"

Giorno nodded. "Yeah, I-I want to meet him," he said with a glance toward the door.

Mista nodded once, then got up and went to get him.

Giorno watched as he came back with a tall man he instantly recognized from the single photograph. Bruno was walking with him.

"Hello, Giorno, I'm Dio Brando. I'm your father."

Giorno just stared at him for a minute and shook his head. "Why did you come around now all of a sudden?"

Dio sighed, running a hand over his blond hair.

"My original intention was to contact you after you turned eighteen. I mistakenly thought your mother would take care of you in my absence. If I had known about your step-father, I would have interceded sooner," he explained. "I would have never left you in such a situation."

"He always said I tried to 'read' him and it made him mad," Giorno said, licking his lips thoughtfully. "I just wanted to know what to expect."

Dio smiled. "That sounds like something I would see fostered in you. Reading people is a good skill to have. I take it you still do so even with your step-father punishing you for it?"

"Yeah, I never stopped, I just learned to be less obvious about it," he said and started to pick at the bandages on his arms a little again.

"I know you're going through a lot right now, and I want you to know I don't intend to make that any harder for you. I came today just so we could meet each other and I could make sure you got the proper care that you need. I will not force things onto you unless you want to continue to pursue them." Dio glanced behind him to see Ice was waiting on him. "You have other brothers, younger than you are. I plan to contact them soon."

"Really?" Giorno hadn't expected to find out there were others in his family. That was something quite unexpected.

"Yes, but there's plenty time for that. For now, concentrate on getting better and getting back to your life," he said as he leaned forward and put a hand on Giorno's shoulder.

"Alright," he said and smiled at him. "I think that would be good."

"I'll leave my information with Bruno here, and you can call me when you feel up to it. We'll have lunch or something to get to know each other." Dio nodded to Bruno and walked out the door with him, leaving Mista and Giorno on their own.

"I was so scared you weren't coming back," Mista admitted, coming over and sitting down beside Giorno on the bed again.

"I was scared I wasn't coming back for a while," Giorno said with wide eyes. "The drugs that they gave me, I can't imagine people taking things like that on purpose."

Mista chuckled. "Yeah, people do crazy things like that. I'm sure some people like the weird that comes with drugs, but I've never understood it."

Giorno looked up as Bruno came back in. "Alright, you need rest, Giorno." Mista started to protest. "Ah, no, we need to let him rest and let the doctors make sure nothing is wrong after what he went through. I'm sure you could use the peace and quiet without being scared out of your mind for what was going to happen."

Giorno nodded. "I admit, it was scary. I just wanted to go home, and when I thought of home, it was there at the Villa with you guys and everyone that lives there."

"Oh, we got a goat now," Mista said suddenly.

"A goat?" Giorno asked with a frown. "How'd that happen?"

"Just wandered onto the property. We put an ad in the paper to see if we could find the owner, but so far no one has claimed him," he said with a shrug. "So now I guess we have a goat."

Giorno shook his head. "I'm away for a few days and you go and get a goat."

"Wasn't our fault!" he said with a sigh. "It was really funny too because that Sheriff's officer, Mountain Tim he was called, came by and he mentioned the goat. We were all like, we don't have a goat, but there he was outside! Wandering around like he owned the place!" Mista smiled broadly as he finished the tale.

Bruno cleared his throat and smiled. "I'll meet you out in the waiting room, Mista. Don't be too long." He left them alone and Mista smiled at him.

"I missed you a lot," Mista said, reaching out and taking one of Giorno's hands. There were red marks still etched in the skin on the back of his hands where he'd scratched at the skin there. "I didn't know how much I'd miss you until you weren't there. I got used to having you beside me all the time."

Giorno felt his face flush a little. "Yeah, I know what you mean. I was scared that I wouldn't see you again, and there was so much left that I haven't been able to say to you yet. I knew I wanted to make it so we could see each other again."

Mista interlaced his fingers with Giorno and squeezed his hand tightly. "I promise, I won't go anywhere if you promise not to go anywhere again either."

"I promise," Giorno said and the leaned toward each other.

Mista rested his head on Giorno's and smiled. "Good. Then we're agreed, together always." He leaned in the rest of the way and kissed Giorno's lips gently before he stood to leave.


	11. Chapter 11

After the doctors were sure that the worst of things were past for Giorno, he was allowed to go home. He had never been so happy to get back home in his life. Bruno and Mista had come to pick him up. He was certainly glad to see Mista.

"I thought I would never get back here," Giorno said as they pulled in front of the house.

"Here, I'll introduce you to our goat." Mista got out and ran around to open the door for Giorno.

Giorno got out and was led to a pen they had put together where the goat was standing eating some feed. Mista called it over and it came to the side of the pen. It nuzzled Giorno's hand as he reached in to touch it.

"Well, hello there, new friend," Giorno told the goat as he scratched it on the head.

Mista smiled, watching Giorno. "Her name is Coco, at least that's what we're calling her."

"She's very cute," he said as he stood back up again.

He looked over at the duck pen. "The ducks even look bigger!" he announced.

Mista chuckled. "You haven't been gone that long!"

Giorno nodded and stared at the ducks for a little longer. "I know, but it feels like it's been a long time for whatever reason. Maybe that stuff they gave me made it feel like it was longer, though."

He rubbed at the bandages still on his forearms and thought about the things that drove him to do something like that to himself. He shook the thoughts away. They would heal. And there would be scars, but it would be okay, because Mista would be here for him. An he had a father to get to know. That was a bigger surprise.

"What're ya thinkin' about?" Mista asked as he bumped hips with him.

"Oh, just everything that's happened. Just, I could have died in that place. I felt like I was dying some of the time, but to really die like that?" He shook his head and broke his gaze from the ducks. "I can't imagine going through anything like that again."

"Well, you're home, and you don't have to worry. Come on, I think Narancia made dinner for your return to the house." Mista put a gentle hand around Giorno's back and guided him toward the doorway.

Giorno went along with him, happy for the first time in the last few days. This was much better than being at the hospital. He could see his friends an he didn't have to worry about the constant barrage of doctors and nurses. He felt the crawling sensation, though. Now and then. It would feel like something was still on his skin, and he didn't know what to do about that. He wondered if he should tell Mista about that. He would probably just worry. There was no reason to worry him more than he already did.

"I am so glad to be home," he said as they opened the door and were met with the smell of dinner that had been cooked for them. Bruno had already come inside and was sitting at the table with Fugo as Narancia finished setting out the food.

"Welcome home, Giorno!" Fugo said from his place on the side of the table. "Have something besides that horrible hospital food."

Giorno smiled and sat down, enjoying just being with everyone now. He hadn't even been here that long, but it was like he'd found his own little family in that short amount of time. He had never thought of home as a good place to be until now. Here, he wanted to be an he wanted to see the people in his life.

They had dinner and Giorno heard all about what had happened while he'd been gone. He was impressed at how much everyone had done to try and help find him. He appreciated the friends he had now that would go to such lengths to try and locate him. He wouldn't have expected them to practically launch their own investigation into his disappearance. He had found a rare group of friends, that was for sure.

After dinner, everyone was tired and ready for bed. Giorno certainly was ready to get some sleep in his own bed. Even if he did share with Mista. He had come to know it as his own. He fell into the bed with a deep sigh and then looked over as Mista crawled in beside him. He smiled and Mista put his hand on Giorno's face.

"I was so scared while you were missing," Mista explained.

"I was scared, too," Giorno responded.

"I'm just glad you're safe and home now," Mista said, leaning in to kiss Giorno on the lips gently. "But you need some sleep and real rest. That hospital wasn't the most restful place, I'd imagine."

Giorno shook his head. "No, not at all," he said and leaned over to kiss Mista again, this time letting the kiss linger and then deepen when Mista's tongue flicked out at the seam of his mouth.

They kissed for a minute or two, breaking when the need for breath won over their desire to stay connected. Mista, panting a little, smiled at him. "Time for that later. You need to get some rest."

"Yeah, there's plenty time for that sort of stuff," Giorno agreed, feeling the weight of exhaustion pulling on his limbs greatly by now. He just hoped that he was able to sleep.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

He was stuck in a chair, unable to move, unable to make a sound. He was terrified and even if he wasn't bound, he probably wouldn't have been able to move. The walls were closing in around him and the bugs were crawling over his skin, driving him mad. He would do anything to just make it stop, anything at all to end it.

The oppressive feeling in his head was enough to split his skull. The world was swirling and spinning, and he couldn't stop it. He had to try and stop it, but it was all too much. He cried out, begging someone, anyone to come and help him. There was a door and it wouldn't open. He couldn't scream, he couldn't do anything.

 _Please find me!_ He wanted to scream it, but he couldn't make more than mumbled noises around a gag. If he didn't let them know he was here, they couldn't save him. He was lost, alone, and he had to get out of this place. He was panicking, and there was no one there to help him. The walls moved, growing in size before closing down on him again.

He gasped and took a gulping breath, sitting up in the bed. He panted for breath for a few minutes, trying to be quiet and not wake Mista. He rubbed his eyes blearily. He looked around and knew he wasn't going to get back to sleep. He sighed and decided to go to the bathroom and wash his face off. He came out, still groggy and went to go for the door.

At first, he was wondering why Mista was making so much noise. Then he blinked and realized he'd gone in the wrong room. He hadn't returned to his and Mista's room, instead he'd walked into Narancia and Fugo's room, and they were currently quite occupied with each other. He froze at first, not sure what to do, then realized he'd been seen. Fugo locked eyes with him and then made a shooing motion with his hands.

"Sorry, sorry!" he exclaimed and turned and stepped back out of the room, closing it behind him. He took a breath and then headed down the stairs. TV sounded good right now.

He flopped in the sofa and before long, he heard someone else coming down the stairs. He looked to see Narancia and Fugo.

"I'm so sorry," he said, blushing hard. "I thought I was going back to my room, and I just opened the wrong door, and…"

"It's okay, we're not mad or anything," Narancia told him and put an arm around his shoulders.

"I just had a nightmare, or flashback, whatever you want to call it. I just, I don't know what to do with the things I see," Giorno said with a sigh. "I just keep seeing the things I saw while I was there, over and over again in my head."

"Things will get easier," Fugo assured him.

"You know we have trouble now and then, too. The drug test they subjected us to were hard to deal with afterward. Between the withdrawal at first and the flashbacks that we still have, we know what it's like to go through this," Narancia explained with a gentle squeeze of the hand.

"Does it get better?" Giorno asked with a sigh.

"Better, yes, but as you know, it never really goes away," Fugo explained. "You learn to cope with it. At first, when I was here, I used to fly into rages all the time. In the middle of the night, I'd have to go outside and scream. Good thing we don't have near neighbors. I scared Mista, Bruno, and Narancia. Hell, the first time Mista saw it happen, he was ready to call 911 on me." Fugo took a breath. "I had one while you were missing, and I hadn't had one in a long time. But the stress got to me."

"I sleepwalk sometimes," Narancia put in. "I've woken up outside a couple times. It can be kind of scary when you wake up and don't know how you got there."

Giorno nodded, leaning into Fugo. "I just feel like I'm coming out of my skin most the time. Most the withdrawal they said would pass quickly since I wasn't being dosed with it for very long."

"That, at least, is good," Narancia told him. "Withdrawal can be hard. I had a problem wetting the bed during it, myself… And the hallucinations are killer. I sometimes had this one where my arms and legs were being cut off, or someone was sexually assaulting me… They can be so real that it's frightening." Narancia smiled. "Fugo used to say during that time I was in an 'altered state of consciousness' or something like that."

"Luckily, it just seems I'm anxious most the time," Giorno explained with a sigh. He rubbed the bandages still on his forearm. "It's bad enough the damage I did to myself…"

"Sometimes it will be hard, sometimes it won't be so hard. Either way, all of us are here for you." Fugo squeezed his shoulders again.

"Thank you, so much." Giorno sighed, feeling a little sleepy but knowing he'd never get to sleep again tonight.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

After a couple of weeks had passed, Giorno got a phone call from his real father asking if he could come by to visit him. Giorno had said yes, of course, as he did want to get to know him better. He was still surprised to find out he had a real father that cared about him after all. He sort of resented the fact that he had taken so long to check on him, but he supposed if he looked at the surface, his life had seemed normal. Anyone who looked at the Giovanna family would have seen a nice, suburban family.

So, Giorno and Mista sat waiting in the dining room for Dio to come by to see Giorno. He was nervous but excited at the same time. He'd only briefly talk to him in the hospital so to get to sit down and talk to him at length was going to be interesting. The knock on the door surprised them both into standing up.

"I'll get it," Giorno said, smiling at Mista who sat back down slowly.

He went to the door and opened it to see both Dio and Vanilla Ice standing there. He gestured for them to come in.

"How are you doing since you got out of hospital?" he asked as he sat down at the table. Ice remained in the living room and sat down on the sofa.

Giorno sat back down across from him. "Better. I have been having trouble sleeping, and I have some crazy dreams when I do sleep."

Dio nodded. "I can imagine that's a little hard for you to get used to. I'm glad it seems your arms have healed up well."

Giorno looked at his arms, with the bandages off, they looked kind of rough. The scabs were giving way to new pink flesh that was growing in. Among the new scars, though, his old scars could clearly still be seen. He rubbed his forearms and nodded.

"Yeah, most of it has healed well." Giorno still was resisting the urge to cover his arms up again. This time it was even stronger that before. He knew it would be hard to resist when it grew too warm to wear his hoodie again. "Um, what is it you do?"

"Oh, I'm a wealthy businessman. I started at the bottom though. I worked my way to the top with my charisma and intelligence. Which it seems you might have inherited since you're doing well in school. What is it that you're studying?" he asked as he looked at Giorno seriously.

"Biology," Giorno responded, trying to keep from looking away from Dio's face. The urge was strong to _not_ look him in the face. "I've just started, though. I haven't decided what I'm going to do with it. I like studying living things of all sorts, including plants. I've always had a lot of interest in it and used to want to garden but I wasn't allowed to have one at home. Now I think I'll plant one here in the spring."

"Well, I was planning to offer you a better place to live," Dio said with a half smirk. "But that seems unnecessary now since you have these people to live with." He paused and smiled genuinely now. "I would, however, like for you to accept some financial assistance while you're going to school."

As much as Giorno would have loved to turn him down, he really didn't have much choice while he went to school. "I would appreciate that greatly," Giorno told him as he felt blood rush to his cheeks. "Even living here, it's hard to keep up with food and transportation on the money I get for school."

Dio nodded. "I can see how that would be difficult. Living like this, with a good bunch of people, makes it a lot easier than going it on your own. That can make a difference in success and failure, the people you keep around you."

"I'm glad I found these guys," Giorno said with a glance over at Mista. "They've made all the difference in the world to me. They've shown me what a real family lives like, even though none of them are related. Caring for one another like this is really a great thing. I can't ever thank them enough for what they've done for me."

"Good friends will take you far," Dio said with a nod of his head. "But just remember to watch out for yourself too. You've got to take care of you before you can take care of anyone else."

"That's true," Giorno agreed. "If someone doesn't take care of themselves, they won't have anything to give."

Dio flashed him a broad smile. "That's the idea. Always look out for yourself. You never know what others are going to do when you aren't looking."

Giorno nodded, understanding what he meant by that. "You said I have other siblings?" he asked, curious now about them.

"Yes, three brothers. Donatello is the next one after you, followed by Rikiel and then Ungalo is the youngest. I've been in contact with some of their mothers now that I'm beginning to get involved in their lives. I don't want any of them to suffer a bad home situation like you did. I'm still quite upset with your mother for letting that happen," Dio expressed, sighing.

"I got used to it," Giorno said, trying to downplay the seriousness of being in an abusive home.

"You shouldn't have had to, though. I feel at fault for not keeping better track of the things that were going on in your life. I mistakenly thought your mother would care for you." Dio looked very bothered by this fact and wasn't trying to hide it.

Mista spoke up then. "But it's all okay now. He's with us, and that stuff is in the past now."

Dio smiled at him. "You're right. Talking about the future is more important than talking about the past. Going forward, we have only positive things that are going to happen, and positive thoughts for the future."

"That seems fair," Giorno said with his own smile.

"I guess that was all I came by to talk with you about today, just wanted to get to know you a little better and offer you some financial help. I'll set things up in a bank account in your name, so you can have a card of your own." Dio stood up slowly as he spoke.

"I appreciate that," Giorno stood up too. "I will put it to good use. I'm very responsible with money," he explained. "I never got a lot of it growing up, so I had to keep it saved in order to do anything with it."

Mista got up, too. He followed Dio and Giorno into the living room where Ice was sitting. "I might send Ice here by occasionally to check up on you and see how things are going if I'm too busy to come by."

"That's fine, he's always welcome to come in and hang out while he's here," Giorno laughed. "There's always someone here doing something!"

"And you," Dio looked toward Mista. "I'm counting on you to take good care of my son."

Mista felt his cheeks flush and he nodded. "Yes, sir. I will do that."

Dio smiled and clapped him on the back as he headed out the door with Ice behind him. "Take care, Giorno. I'll be in touch."

Giorno shut the door and looked at Mista. "He's so intense!" he gasped as he looked at him.

"But he's going to give you money, that's amazing!" Mista said with a grin. "You won't have to wear ratty clothes anymore and you'll be able to eat at school rather than skipping lunch!"

"I don't skip lunch," Giorno tried, but Mista glared at him. "Sometimes I skip lunch."

"As skinny as you are, you do it more than sometimes! I can count your ribs!" Mista wasn't going to listen to him about this issue.

"Alright, but now I will be able to afford lunch every day," Giorno said, trying to get off the topic of his weight.

They looked up as Bruno came down the stairs. "How'd it go?" he asked as he stepped off he last stair.

"Good, he's giving Giorno money!" Mista said excitedly.

"Well, that is a good development. That way you don't have to get a job outside of school," Bruno said as he went into the kitchen for some tea. "How about celebratory tea?"

Mista and Giorno both joined him in the kitchen for just that.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

As the winter weather approached, the household began to get ready for it and the upcoming holidays. Before it got too cold they decided to move the ducks into an unfinished room upstairs and invest in duck diapers. It would be a challenge, but they couldn't leave them outside when it came time for it to snow.

Giorno headed up the duck transfer. They were taking them one at a time to the room, so they didn't get too spooked or anything. Giorno would hand off a duck to someone and they'd take them up to the room carefully. While they were getting things ready, they started talking about the upcoming holidays and how everyone was going to celebrate.

"Well, I don't usually do much for the holidays myself," Fugo explained. "But if you guys want to do something and decorate, that's fine with me."

Giorno picked up the first duck and handed her to Fugo, who tucked her in his arms and took her inside. The room they were using needed to be gutted anyway to have the floor replaced, so any water that was spilled in there wouldn't matter. Narancia was next up to take one of the ducks, taking her also carefully into the house.

Mista spoke from behind Giorno. "You know what you want to do for the holidays?"

Giorno sighed. "Well, I'd like to celebrate here. I'm certainly not going back to my mom's place for any of them."

By that time, Fugo had come back to retrieve another duck. Giorno handed him over and smiled. "I think we can have a good holiday together," Mista said, picking up the feeding trough and dumping the seed out that was left in the bottom.

"Holidays were never great for me," Giorno sighed. "I mean, we never really celebrated much. My mother would put up a tree and that was about it. We never did any other kind of decorating or anything."

"Well, we'll have to change that," Mista told him emphatically. "Hey Fugo, do you have any decorations?"

Fugo, who had run a duck and come back again, shook his head, taking another duck. "Nah, I don't have anything, but put up anything you like. It's fine with me."

Once the got all the ducks situated and in the room that was lined with a layer of hay on the floor, everyone went down for a cup of tea and to discuss further their holiday plans.

"Well, we can get a fresh tree," Narancia suggested. "And buy a bunch of decorations from the dollar stores cheap."

Bruno sat down the cups for them and took his seat, listening. Mista sipped at his cup thoughtfully. "There's a lot that we could put up easily, like some lights outside to brighten things up a bit."

"That could be fun," Giorno agreed with a smile. "Maybe do some of those things that you stand up out in the yard too."

"Those giant blow up things?" Narancia asked with an arched brow.

"Maybe nothing that big," Giorno chuckled. "We don't need to turn into the house that spewed Christmas."

The last of the ducks were secured inside the house, warmly put away in the duck room. They had also gotten duck diapers so the ducks could be taken out of the bedroom to other areas of the house.

"It's getting cold, how about we go in a warm up with some tea?" Mista asked as they finished up with outside.

In short order they were all inside the house again, seated with a nice, calming chamomile tea for everyone. They were all a little chilled from being outside in the cool evening air.

"Mista, did your family do anything for the holidays special?" Giorno asked as he sipped his tea.

"Nah, nothing special. Oh hey, Bruno," Mista looked up as Bruno came down from the upstairs.

"Hey guys," he answered, going in the kitchen and finding a cup for tea himself. "Did you get all the ducks put away?"

Giorno nodded. "Yeah, they're all put up, happily using their new play area. It will be a little messy to clean up, but we only have to keep them inside for a couple months until the snow isn't a threat anymore."

Bruno sat down and glanced around the table. "What else have you been talking about?"

"Holidays," Mista told him, drawing a long drink from his tea. "We were discussing maybe doing some decorating around here and whatnot."

"That would be fun," Bruno agreed. "We've never really decorated for anything before. We'd have to buy all the things to put up."

"We'll get a fresh tree, so it'll smell like pine in here," Narancia reminded them.

"I haven't had a tree in years," Bruno said as he sipped at his steaming cup of tea. "It could be a lot of fun. What do you think, Fugo?"

Fugo shrugged. "I said they can do whatever they want so long as they put it up and take it down. I don't want the place looking ridiculous either, so there's that."

"We can put up a lot of decorations that will make it look festive, not ridiculous," Mista assured him. "Maybe we can even have a holiday party or something."

Giorno smiled and stared around the table at everyone. Mista leaned over and bumped his shoulder. "What's the smile for?"

"Just this is pretty amazing to me. Last year, I wasn't able to do something like this, planning things for the holidays and having a wonderful time. So much has changed since then in just a short amount of time." Giorno put his elbows on the table and rested his chin in his hands. "I honestly hadn't thought my life would change any. I thought I was stuck forever in that house and that my life was going to stay that way."

Mista put an arm around his shoulders and squeezed. "Well, you don't have to worry anymore about that. We've got you now."

"Yeah, I know," Giorno said, still smiling. "I just appreciate you all so much and you have no idea how much all this means to me."

"Well, a toast, to our crazy household," Bruno said, holding his teacup up. Everyone held up their cups and smiled, taking a sip together. They were a crazy household, but they were a family.


	12. Chapter 12

"Mista!" Giorno called as he came through the living room. LA and Andre were both sitting on the sofa watching some sort of documentary on TV. "Are you going on my walk with me? It's just snowed!"

"I'm coming!" Mista said as he came running down the stairs. "Sorry, I was checking on the ducks!"

Giorno smiled and put on his coat and scarf. It was January and had just started snowing in earnest. They hadn't had a white Christmas, but it was certainly making up for it. He had, at first, worried about Kars and his friends, but he soon found that Fugo had made an arrangement with them in exchange for work around the property. He'd give them the outbuilding they had built their encampment against so they had someplace warm over the winter.

"Are you sure you want to go out in the snow?" Mista asked as he got his own coat and scarf on.

"Yeah, the snow is fresh, and the winter air is bracing," Giorno said with a smile as he opened the door.

They headed out to find their path among the crunching snow. They walked quietly for a few minutes and just enjoyed the utter quiet of the snow-covered area. Giorno looked up at the sky where snow clouds were gathering once again.

"What are you thinking about?" Mista asked, reaching out and taking Giorno's gloved hand.

Giorno paused and looked down at their hands and squeezed Mista's again. "I was thinking about the future and where we're headed."

"Oh?" he asked. "What were you thinking?"

"Well, I'm going to be meeting my brothers soon. I was thinking about that. I don't know what it's like to have brothers, but I want to make sure it's a good thing. I know that things have been going well with my real father. It will just be a matter of time until I make friends with my brothers. I know it," Giorno said as he interlaced his gloved fingers with Mista as well as he could.

"Yeah, I have no doubt," Mista said.

"I think about us too," Giorno said, his cheeks warming despite the cold air around him.

"Oh?" Mista asked, moving a bit closer.

"Yeah," Giorno said, smiling a bit. "I think I love you."

Mista blinked in surprise, not expecting that to come out of Giorno's mouth. "You do?"

Giorno arched his brow. "Usually, the answer to that is something along the lines of 'I love you too' or so."

"Well, yeah, I love you, of course," Mista said, smiling broadly now. "I just didn't expect you to say it in the middle of a winter walk."

Giorno smiled. "I do things when they feel right," he told him, picking up Mista's hand and kissing it lightly.

"Well, I don't mind, as long as you care about me, that's what matters to me," Mista said.

Giorno pulled him and they continued walking. They were quiet until they turned around to go back. Then Giorno smiled.

"The place has been so busy lately," he said, looking at their tracks as they walked back the same way. "Everyone comes to the house these days."

"Wonder who will show up tonight?" Mista said as they came back to the house.

Immediately, they heard Jolyn speaking from inside as they opened the door and came inside. L.A. and Andre were sitting on the couch chatting with Anasui about something or other, and Hermes and Jolyn were in the dining room talking to Narancia and Fugo while Bruno was in the kitchen. This was not unusual for them these days, so Giorno wasn't surprised by this.

"What's all the racket?" Mista called as he put his coat and scarf back on the hook by the door.

"Oh, just the normal," Bruno said. The girls were teasing the boys, and they all congregated over on the couch to plot revenge. Something tells me it won't help, though," he laughed as he sat cups of hot chocolate down on the table for Giorno and Mista. "Come, sit, I made a fresh batch of cocoa."

Giorno and Mista sat down, gratefully taking the cups and sipping the warm liquid. Giorno couldn't help but think about how far he'd come in so short a time. He'd started out alone and not even realizing he was lonely, and now he was surrounded by friends and people he considered his family more than anything else. He sipped the cocoa and listened to the ruckus around him and smiled.

"What are you smiling for?" Mista asked, leaning over toward him.

"Just thinking about how lucky I am to have found Passione Villa." Giorno leaned over and kissed Mista gently and meant every word.


End file.
